Temperature Stated As a "Negative"

[Kari Castor]

Just another midwesterner chiming in that "negative so-many" is common usage
around these parts.
Kari


On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 1:58 PM, M Covarrubias <mcovarru at purdue.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       M Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Temperature Stated As a "Negative"
>
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>
> all of my midwestern life i've switched between three options:
>
> minus-#
> negative-#
> #-below
>
> i think i say 'minus-#' most often. but i guess i haven't counted.
>
> michael
>
>
> On Jan 15, 2009, at 2:09 PM, Barbara Need wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Temperature Stated As a "Negative"
> >
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> >
> > What is correct? Minus? Negative five sounds OK to me--but I've lived
> > in the Midwest much of my life.
> >
> > Barbara
> >
> > Barbara Need
> >
> > On 15 Jan 2009, at 12:24 PM, Doug Harris wrote:
> >
> >> I've heard this a couple of times recently, once from someone in
> >> Nebraska, once from a CNN
> >> presenter who _may_ have been in or from the midwest:
> >> A below-zero Fahrenheit temperature reported as, say, _negative 15_.
> >> I tried to convince my Nebraska friend (who's also lived in Iowa and
> >> ND) that that terminology
> >> isn't correct, but she's continued using it.
> >> Is that phrasing as uncommon as I suspect? Is it specific to a
> >> certain geography?
> >> dh
> >
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