[Ads-l] "Needs washed" in Delaware

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

I don’t know of any research that would be useful on the question of whether this usage is spreading in Delaware in the sense of becoming more common, but I suspect it’s been there for some time. Need + PastPart. Is maybe best known as a feature of western PA but it’s not a Pennsylvania Dutchism, if that’s meant to suggest German influence. Michael Montgomery traced it to Scotch-Irish influence, and it’s heard throughout the Midland dialect region albeit sporadically in many places. Most of the scholarship on Midland speech has focused on the area west of the Appalachians, but in its original formulation the Midland included southern NJ and northern DE. More recently, the Atlas of North American English recorded this feature in eastern PA, DC and Norfolk VA though not in NJ or DE, but they did not survey rural communities.

Matt

From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben Yagoda <byagoda at UDEL.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 4:06 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: "Needs washed" in Delaware
WARNING: This message has originated from an External Source. This may be a phishing expedition that can result in unauthorized access to our IT System. Please use proper judgment and caution when opening attachments, clicking links, or responding to this email.

Molly MacMillan, a friend and former student who lives in southern Delaware, messaged me that she’s been encountering more and more examples of constructions like “the grass needs mowed,” or “my hair needs cut.” I reported this is a common Pennsylvania Dutch-ism and referred her to Ben Zimmer’s 2017 Language Log post: https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flanguagelog.ldc.upenn.edu%2Fnll%2F%3Fp%3D31585%26fbclid%3DIwAR1VVeyg0YvN08i4bSnmQ0B2PdJ6MxzbtqseMEiqnaocnkn943cz_sEvRnQ&data=05%7C02%7CGordonMJ%40MISSOURI.EDU%7Cbd5d04a5b1b84a70c12408dc38a97d89%7Ce3fefdbef7e9401ba51a355e01b05a89%7C0%7C0%7C638447547804354118%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=E5tABHQjojXicTJD922oojq7uAGMmMpegPpDOaCQ2Bs%3D&reserved=0<https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=31585&fbclid=IwAR1VVeyg0YvN08i4bSnmQ0B2PdJ6MxzbtqseMEiqnaocnkn943cz_sEvRnQ>

Molly subsequently sent me a screen shot of a (Delaware) real estate ad reporting that “the owner spared no expense so you can move in and enjoy without having any worries of things needing fixed or update.”

Presumably it should be “updated” but I told her I had never seen this in the gerund form.

Anyone have a sense of whether the construction has spread, either geographically or syntactically?

Ben

Ben Yagoda
Linktree of published pieces: https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flinktr.ee%2Fbenyagoda&data=05%7C02%7CGordonMJ%40MISSOURI.EDU%7Cbd5d04a5b1b84a70c12408dc38a97d89%7Ce3fefdbef7e9401ba51a355e01b05a89%7C0%7C0%7C638447547804362242%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dOFcQNHB0S%2BRpTfwMC2bj5LNj4R3pypIvAndlZz8oXI%3D&reserved=0<https://linktr.ee/benyagoda>
Website: benyagoda.com



------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americandialect.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7CGordonMJ%40MISSOURI.EDU%7Cbd5d04a5b1b84a70c12408dc38a97d89%7Ce3fefdbef7e9401ba51a355e01b05a89%7C0%7C0%7C638447547804367125%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=fbqnG2zGHtbhIY9MkXJRxuqeFEXoTpp2gx%2BZYePRCfY%3D&reserved=0<http://www.americandialect.org/>

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