Thread: Mad kitty!
View Single Post
  #7  
Old October 22nd 04, 01:37 PM
Yowie
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

wrote in message
...
I'd like to pause for just a moment, to have a tangential linguistic
discussion.

Singh wrote:

Just to be on the safe side, Louie rigged up the dresser so she can't
get beneath it now. So at least if she does go down cellar, we have
some idea of how and where to find her.


Oh, *WOW*!! I haven't heard the phrase "go down cellar" for years! (It
means "go down to the basement", for the uninitiated.) But that's how my
mother always said it. I just had a childhood flashback!

I'm from Boston. My parents are from Boston. All of their parents were
born in Boston, too. So I'm thinking maybe "down cellar" is a Boston-ism.
Or maybe a New England-ism?


I always find it weird to hear the American term "I'll write you" rather
than saying "I'll write *to* you". I don't know when the dropped "to" or the
"to the" in your case above first started to be thought of as correct
grammar in American English, but to these Commonweatlth English ears, it
always sounds wrong.

But being quite ancient in terms of cuber-life, I've learnt that even
"English" has distinct sub-languages, and no one particular dialect is any
more "correct" than any other - just that some are "older".

Ye Olde Yowieth


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.775 / Virus Database: 522 - Release Date: 8/10/04