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.