Date:  Mon, 18 Dec 1995 03:35:15 -0500

From:  Margaret Ronkin <ronkinm[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GUSUN.ACC.GEORGETOWN.EDU>

Subject: Re: het/heated



    In a narrative that I recently collected for a class

assignment, my 73-year-old mother used <het> as the past tense

form of <heat, vb> in "And I found myself getting all het up

about that". She grew up in the Sacramento Valley (where her

family settled during the Gold Rush) and claims to have learned

the usage from elderly relatives of Scots-English descent

as a child. Rather than attributing this form to geography

alone, she and I were under the impression that the Scots-

English in the US retained it at least up to her generation.



--Maggie

On Sun, 17 Dec 1995, Rudy Troike wrote:



>     In response to a posting a while back by Jeutonne Brewer re her

> mother-in-law's use of <het> as the past tense of <heat, vb> (clearly different

> from the Pennsylvania usage of <het in the present tense reported by Molly

> Dickmeyer), I recall what seemingly was once a common South Midland (and

> Southern?) expression "Don't get all het [=heated] up about it." I don't

> know if this was included in the LAGS survey. Clearly we've lost a good

> strong verb form.

>     Rudy

>     --Rudy Troike (rtroike[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ccit.arizona.edu)

>