🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9208052111.AA20375@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> lucas@WATSON.IBM.COM ("Bruce Lucas") writes:
>As a more-or-less native Midwesterner (northeastern Ohio) born of
>western-Pennsylvania parents, the construct exemplified by
>"The car needs washed" sounds natural to my ears.  However,
>I have found that many on the East Coast find this construction

(...stuff deleted....)

>New Zealander use it.  I would be interested in any comments the
>readers of this newsgroup might have on the origin and extent of
>this construct.
>
>Thanks,
>Bruce Lucas

I grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, and heard it a lot - mostly from rural people
and not so much from those who had grown up in Iowa City itself.  I remember
hearing somewhere that it was a Pennsylvania-ism.  Hmm.  There are lots of
Amish in Iowa and in Pennsylvania - anyone know if we should blame them?  :)
Also, a large percentage of rural Iowans are of German and Czech backgrounds.
Maybe it is a more general thing than Amish.  I speak German and am not
aware of that kind of construction in German, but I don't really know much
about the non-standard dialects.  In Amana (where there still are many German
speakers) you do hear some interesting expressions/syntax, such as "Look the
window and see what it's making outside".

I have also heard what sounds like a similar construction:  'You want slapped?'
(omission of "to be/to get")

Bob Beer
bbeer@u.washington.edu