Date:    Fri, 8 May 1998 19:44:21 +0200
<br>From:    David Sutcliffe <david.sutcliffe[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]TRAD.UPF.ES>
<br>Subject: Re: Deletion of "to"; 'em
<br>
<br>I asked about incidence of these features in US speech.
<br>
<br>Thanks very much to Mike Salovesh for his reply: a masterly account of a
<br>two, or three-way split between 'em, plural (them), 'em singular ("him)
<br>and 'im (ditto) among white Chicageans. He also confirmed that "to"
<br>deletion as in "I want you folks have..." etc (variant:  "I want you
<br>folks uh have...") were common patterns among Irish Americans in that
<br>city.
<br>
<br>(I apologize for not copying the full version; for some reason I can't
<br>do it with out extraneous Spanish words copying too)
<br>
<br>My follow-up question is, assuming 'em singular is widespread (?), could
<br>contributors give me a bit more feedback on distribution of "to"
<br>deletion in other places: New York, California, not to mention Minnesota
<br>( since that seems to be a dialect area people are sensitive to). For
<br>what it's worth, my impression is that this feature is on the increase,
<br>and somehow not much noticed.
<br>
<br>David Sutcliffe
<br>Universitat Pompeu Fabra
<br>Rambla 30-32
<br>08002 Barcelona
<br>