"The sun has riz, the sun has set, and here we is in Texas yet" (1933)

[Laurence Horn]

>Larry asks:
>     >>>>>
>
>Besides the obvious virtue of its elegance, this
>line (in the positive versions) has the very nice
>use of "yet" for 'still', which I assume derives
>from German influence in Texas, as it does in
>Wisconsin.  Any thoughts?
>
>  <<<<<
>
>Why postulate foreign influence?
>
>        O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
>        O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
>                (By a fellow alumnus)
>
>-- Mark A. Mandel, St. John's College (Annapolis) 1969
>[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]
>
For me, this (like the corresponding affirmative form, "We will make
it yet", "We will yet prevail") is definitely marked [+poetic] if not
[+pompous].  The example we used on our dialect questionnaire in
Intro Ling at UW-Madison was someone coming in late for T'giving
dinner and asking "Is there any turkey yet?", which pretty much
excludes the poetic register.  It was fine for many of the Wisconsin
students, and I would expect for many Texans as well.

LH, wondering if there are those who reanalyze FSK's question-- "No,
not yet--we'd better haul it up the flagpole and see if anyone
salutes".

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