Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 00:04:45 -0500

From: ALICE FABER faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]HASKINS.YALE.EDU

Subject: "and them"



Several posters on yesterday's ADS-L digest mentioned non-specific ??? words

(??? not to call them question words, but because I'm not at all sure what

word class to put these in) "and dem" and "mamanem" (which I assume, Ellen, is

"mom an' 'em"). Peter Patrick related the "and dem" form to something in

Jamaican or perhaps more general Caribbean creole. But I can't help thinking

of a fairly common locution in Texas some 15-20 years ago (my last opportunity

for direct observation), which I think is probably related to Ellen's

"mamanem"--"and them", typically in "How's your Mom and them?", used quite

unselfconsciously by native Texas (Anglo) classmates of mine.



Alice Faber

Faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]Haskins.yale.edu