Heard on The Judges: "conversate"

[Mark Mandel]

On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 3:49 PM, Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net>wrote:

> It's no doubt destined to become part of the lexicon, cf. "surveil"
>
> Bill Palmer
>

<mood old-crank>But that, at least, fills a lexical gap.</mood>

m a m


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >
> > Over the past dekkid, this word has become so widely used by people of
> > every race, creed, color, national origin, and sexual orientation
> > that, at the very least, it ought to be, like _aks_, considered
> > standard non-standard English. Once upon a time, I considered this to
> > be a joking form, it being such an obvious back-formation from
> > "conversation." But, after hearing people use this in place of "say"
> > or even "discuss":
> >
> > "No, your honor. I didn't have no chance to _conversate_ with the
> > defendant regarding the situation before taking him to court, because
> > he was hiding out somewhere and he also wouldn't answer his cell, your
> > honor."
> >
> > in a situation in which they obviously consider themselves to be
> > speaking a higher class of English than they would be using, if they
> > were just hanging with the homies.
> >
> > -Wilson
>

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