At last. A home for drinkers!

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:55 AM -0500 12/13/07, Dennis Preston wrote:
>Some of y'all boys lookin fer a place to lay your weary heads after a
>night on the town may want to check out some Oklahoma possibilities.
>One realtor writes about a place as follers:
>
>Wonderful, Unique house located in a very sot after neighborhood.
>
>dInIs

...and a pretty strong clue as to where the realtor stands on the
"caught"/"cot" merger.

LH

>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: From Slashdot
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>You may have a point there, Matthew, WRT Br v. Am variation. But isn't
>>that what dialectology is about? Had _has to do_ been spoken by an
>>American and _is to do_ been spoken by an Englishman, the difference
>>may wee not have caught my attention. But that wasn't the case. Both
>>speakers were American. Even merely within the US, there are many
>>variations, up to the point of ungrammaticality. Cf., e.g.:
>>
>>"You sank my boat!"
>>
>>A. "No I never!"
>>
>>B. "No I didn't!
>>
>>For me, A is almost laughingly ungrammatical in this context, though
>>I've been hearing  people speak that way for about 65 years. I've
>>simply never been able to get ready for the A version. I just can't
>>feature it.
>>
>>-Wilson
>>
>>On 12/11/07, Gordon, Matthew J. <GordonMJ at missouri.edu> wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       "Gordon, Matthew J." <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU>
>>>  Subject:      Re: From Slashdot
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  I'm not sure why Wilson's pointing this out exactly. Isn't the variation =
>>>  between "is to do" and "has to do" British vs. American?
>>>
>>>
>>>  -----Original Message-----
>>>  From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
>>>  Sent: Tue 12/11/2007 6:27 PM
>>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>  Subject:      From Slashdot
>>>  =20
>>>  "The problem _is to do_ with the power-saving systems ..."
>>>
>>>  -Wilson
>>>  --
>>>  All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>>  come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>>  -----
>>>                                                -Sam'l Clemens
>>>
>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>-----
>>                                               -Sam'l Clemens
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>Morrill Hall 15-C
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org