Whenever I hear a good example (who/whoever)

[Alice Faber]

Mark Davies wrote:
> Could this be related to who / whoever ? When I moved to Utah five years ago, I was struck by sentences like the following:
>
> "I can help who's next"
>
> (said, for example, by a worker at fast food restaurant, as a number of people are waiting in line).
>
> I'd use "I can help whoever's next".
>
> I know this use of "who" wasn't here in Utah back in the 1970s-1980s, but it seems to be the norm now.

It was the norm at coffee shops in New Haven (where people line up,
more-or-less, to place their orders) when I moved here 20 years ago! It
still sounds odd to me, but "whoever" would sound odder.


--
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Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                        fax (203) 865-8963

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