_of_ > _on_ in BE

[Wilson Gray]

All of my life, it's seemed to me that BE uses _on_ in environments
wherein sE uses _of_. But I could never be certain that I was hearing
what I thought I was hearing, e.g.

Billy Joe, he got him some bones (= either joints or one-dollar bills)
an' he done let me hold (= "lent me") one _on_ 'em.

I've always *thought* that I was hearing "part _on_ whole" and I've
even used it. But in *my* grammar, it was so clearly, simply, and
obviously _of_ in such a case that I could never fully persuade myself
that this _on_ was not merely some form of mishearing on my part.

Now comes independent evidence from GB:

Gordon, A[rmistead] C[hurchill], and Thomas Nelson Page. Befo' de war;
echoes in Negro dialect. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York, 1888. p.24

",,, bofe _on_ 'em ..."

The stress-pattern is ['w^n ,Own at m] ['bowf ,Own at m].

The print example of _on_ for _of_ is from "Ferginyer" [,f@
'dSinjI(?)] Virginia. But I've heard it everywhere that I've ever
lived.

--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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