Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 07:11:48 -0500

From: Leslie Dunkling 106407.3560[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]COMPUSERVE.COM

Subject: Of a morning



Rima McKinzey wrote: "It jarred me when I heard my born and bred Oklahoma

mother-in-law say "of a morning" in phrases such as "I have toast of a

morning" instead of in the morning or every morning."



Rima's mother-in-law was in good company. Eg, Arnold Bennett in _Woman who

stole Everything_: "Both brother and sister had had to clock in of a

morning and clock out of an evening for years." This usage remains in

British English, amongst older speakers, at least.



It is the Genitive of Time, once common to Germanic languages, realised

earlier in English as "a-mornings" and still seen in eg, German (Morgens).

Come to think of it, "a-mornings" may well survive in British dialect.