Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 08:38:25 EDT

From: Larry Horn LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU

Subject: Re: Upstate



Dan Goodman writes,

And -- is my memory faulty, or don't some dialect maps show Long

Island as being in the Upstate New York dialect area?



I can't address what dialect maps show, but I'd be surprised. I spent my high

school years on the south shore of Long Island (1957-61) and my undergraduate

years (as mentioned yesterday) in real, upstate upstate territory (Rochester,

1961-65), and the isoglosses

separating the two--both phonological and lexical--were as numerous as they

were hefty. Now this was Nassau, and what I've heard of Suffolk County, the

eastern half of Long Island, always struck me as more like New England in

dialect terms than either New York City or Upstate N. Y. This was especially

true of the rural parts of Suffolk, the potato farmers, etc. Sorry for the

anecdotage of these remarks.



--Larry