[Ads-l] berm

Paul A Johnston, Jr paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU
Tue May 3 02:57:24 UTC 2016


You mostly have no term for that in Michigan, but if you do, the most frequent term is "berm".  When I spent part of my childhood in Chicago, it's the "parkway"; to my Cleveland-born wife, it's the "tree lawn."

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Monday, May 2, 2016 3:38:24 PM
> Subject: Re: berm
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: berm
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> I think I reported that a large fraction of my intro ling students at
> =
> the U. of Wisconsin-Madison who hailed from the state reported that
> they =
> referred to that strip as a "berm".  I'd never encountered the term
> in =
> New York, New England, or California before moving to Wisconsin in
> 1977. =
>  I call it the strip of grass between the sidewalk and a street, but
>  I =
> concede that that's a description, not a name.
> 
> LH
> 
> > On May 2, 2016, at 1:11 PM, Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
> >=20
> > Aha!  The thing without a name!  (Didn't it puzzle many of us some
> > =
> time ago?  Or did someone say "berm" then?)
> >=20
> > Joel
> >=20
> >      From: Joan Hall <jdhall at WISC.EDU>
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=20
> > Sent: Monday, May 2, 2016 12:21 PM
> > Subject: [ADS-L] berm
> >=20
> > DARE ... In the Great Lakes it also means the strip of grass
> > between =
> the sidewalk and the street. ...
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__www.americandialect.=
> org&d=3DAwIFaQ&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsS=
> xPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3DT5kQHhOgvzmsbGavP3MZWuE5o-5iQYpu1aMWha1oj8Q&s=3D-EaWe7=
> GWr5MpBQi1QMW1gtPlNp9scfk7H-WTvJQdC_8&e=3D=20
> >=20
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list