1909

[Jonathan Lighter]

I could be wrong, but in this case I very strongly doubt it. Despite
autosuggestive attempts to imagine them saying, "Nineteen six," "nineteen
nine," etc., it just sounds wrong.

Of course, I have heard that formula from others, though I'm mostly familiar
with it through films and fiction.

JL

On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 1:57 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: 1909
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 1:30 PM -0500 1/15/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >My NYC grandparents never used the forms "nineteen and..." or
> >"nineteen-ought...."  The only form I recall hearing from them (or from
> >anyone else outside of the movies) was "nineteen-oh...."
> >
> >JL
>
> But always "Nineteen oh six" and not "Nineteen six" for dates in the
> first decade of the century?  (Granted, you might not remember those
> earlier dates clearly, Jon.)
>
> LH
>  >
> >
> >On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 12:58 PM, Benjamin Zimmer <
> >bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> >
> >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>  Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> >>  Subject:      Re: 1909
> >>
> >>
>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>  On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 12:39 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu>
> >>  wrote:
> >>  >
> >>  > in my Choosing a Variant course this quarter, we've spent some time
> on
> >>  > the currently hot topic, year names (and number names).  one of the
> >>  > students has asked me how people in 1906 referred to that year.  it's
> >>  > likely that there were several possibilities, of course.
> >>  >
> >>  > anyone have any information on the question?
> >>
> >>  At the beginning of the last decade I poked around a bit for evidence,
> >>  from class cheers and the like. From what I could tell anecdotally,
> >>  the most common formulation was "nineteen six." This is sometimes
> >>  claimed as a Briticism, but there are plenty of examples in the U.S.
> >>  as well.
> >>
> >>  See this alt.usage.english post for cites:
> >>  http://groups.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/msg/e8a4080f14289670
> >>
> >>
> >>  --Ben Zimmer
> >>
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> >
> >
> >
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> >"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
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