Date:  Wed, 29 Nov 1995 12:17:43 EST

From:  David Bergdahl <BERGDAHL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>

Subject: Re: Separate dialects?



From:  NAME: David Bergdahl

    FUNC: English

    TEL: (614) 593-2783          <BERGDAHL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]A1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LANCE>

To:   MX%"ADS-L[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uga.cc.uga.edu"[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAX[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MRGATE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAX



I used to live in the Hudson Valley in northern Westchester / southern Putnam

counties (Lake Carmel-Brewster and south) and with most recently suburbanized a-

reas it's difficult finding "natives" of the area. When my inlaws moved up to

Lake Shenorock / Somers area in the late 30's it was sparsely populated and

farmed. The major road was route 100, two-lane concrete with gravel shoulders,

which you could take all the way up to Vermont. There were NYC commuter trains

to the city and, subsequently, parkways by Robert Moses. After the war north of

White Plains became rapidly suburbanized but northern Westchester and southern

Putnam took another decade or so.



In the 30's the only population you'd find were "natives" such as WGEUS

surveyed; with suburbanization outmigration of the city's white population

radically changed the area. My wife's parents were Bavarian and there were lots

of Germans and Italians in Shenorock ("lots" in a community of 500).

Subsequent outmigration of the city's middle class to the suburbs brought

another mix. So I wouldn't be surprised to find that the Dutch substratum

(stoop, pot cheese, &c.) is mostly missing.



BERGDAHL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU

        David Bergdahl

            Ohio University/Athens

        "Where Appalachia meets the Midwest"--Anya Briggs