🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug5.224441.10212@u.washington.edu> bbeer@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Beer) writes:
>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?  :)

It is, however, a specifically West-PA thang.  I grew up in the Greater
Philadelphia Area, and I have never heard that until I got to the Penn
State main campus; it is seen as a Pgh-ism. 

>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".

There was a large group of German settlers around Phila., too, but we
don't use it. 

Regards,
Janis C.