"until" vs "before" or "to" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Beverly Flanigan]

Peter Trudgill cites it in Chapter 1 of _On Dialect_ (p. 26; I'm looking at
it right now).  He says it's "usual in many varieties spoken in Scotland,
Ireland, and Liverpool" and means "so that I can punch you." But only half
of his NS BrE informants chose the right meaning, about the same as the
number of NNS informants.  And by the way, he cites it as "till"!

At 10:38 AM 7/20/2007, you wrote:
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
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>Subject:      Re: "until" vs "before" or "to" (UNCLASSIFIED)
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>"Come here until I hit you on the nose" is a dialect form somewhere--NZ?
>Norwich?
>------Original Message------
>From: James Harbeck
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>ReplyTo: American Dialect Society
>Sent: Jul 19, 2007 10:31 PM
>Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "until" vs "before" or "to" (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> >If Gehry uses "until", the watch designers may have substituted "til"
> >for reasons of space.
>
>Not so likely -- there's room for "until" quite easily.
>
>Of course, there may have been some editorial decision on the basis
>of expected clarity or expectation.
>
>James Harbeck.
>
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