Midland (was "anymore" = "not previously but now")

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

In traditional dialectology (e.g. Kurath) the NE corner of PA (including Scranton) was part of the Northern dialect region and more recently Labov's Atlas of North American English finds it still to be. Interestingly, on the other end of the state, Erie PA seems to switching its regional allegiance from Northern to Midland.

- Matt Gordon
________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray [hwgray at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2009 4:19 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "anymore" = "not previously but now"

Where, exactly, is Midlands speech located? As a person whose academic
knowledge of the dialectology of the U.S. is best described as
"trivial" (my college linguistics prof thought that we would be more
open-minded and less opinionated WRT the "proper" linguistic forms, if
we studied the dialectology of the Bantu language family, instead), it
seems to me that the term, "Midlands," in view of its "obvious"
meaning, *ought* to exclude the speech-area extending from Scranton,
PA to, but probably not including, Albany, NY.

I've googled the term, of course, but the name of my hometown, Saint
Louis, had its own little section. So, I read that part - FWIW, I
consider it to be accurate - and skimmed the rest, without finding any
clear definition of "Midlands" that would exclude NE PA.

BTW, _youse_ is alive and well among ordinary folk, around these
parts. E.g., waitstaff routinely ask, "What'll yooz ( _oo_ as in
"book") have?" or "How may we serve yooz?" There appears to be a class
distinction, since my wife never uses this form and considers it
"uneducated."

-Wilson

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