Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 11:10:13 -0700

From: Lex Olorenshaw lexo[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LSI.SEL.SONY.COM

Subject: Re: come with



I'm told "come with" is typical of Chicagoans ,which supports the German

influence hypothesis, since a lot of Germans settled there. As a matter of

fact, I hear this construction at home every day from my Chicago-born wife.

Personally, I've only heard "do you want?" and "I got" objectless construc-

tions from speakers with a Yiddish background, who happened to live in

New York, but German and Yiddish syntax are certainly similar enough. Has

anyone else heard these kinds of things in New York?





I'd say my wife's speech supports the Norwegian influence hypothesis.

She lived in L.A. from age 2 to 29, but spent summers in northern Utah

with grandparents from Norway.



I was never quite sure if "come with"/"go with" was an L.A. thing or

family influence. I am fairly sure of family influence on certain

phonological traits, since my in-laws also use these (but others from

L.A. don't):

- "tour" is homophonous with "tore"

- "pillow" rhymes with "yellow"



Does anyone think these are also related to Norwegian influence?



And what about the following sentence, which in my speech would be

considered a dropping of the word 'space':

- "I couldn't find a parking."





=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Lex Olorenshaw

E-mail: lexo[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]lsi.sel.sony.com

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=