The North American Language 'Anymore'

[norton ash]

82-28, of western North America:

He said, compared to Wall Street, Las Vegas is perfectly legitimate anymore.

I've noticed a different use of the word 'anymore' in the West, especially the western plains/rockies region of the USA and Canada.

First time I noticed it was at a ball game in Saskatchewan, when a fan yelled "Hey, ump, where's your strike zone anymore?" and I thought it was strange. Since then I've heard it being used this way by Sask-Albertans, someone from Colorado like 82, and a Washington stater. I'm going to ask my Vancouver bro-in-law if he knows what I'm talking about.

It seems to be flexibly used like 'anyway' or 'now' or 'in these times' or 'as things go' in a way that I haven't heard it used in the East or elsewhere in English, where it's only used synonymous with 'no longer' as in 'Not anymore' or Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

Language is such a living, regional thing.

[Project Willow]

This usage is familiar to me and I'm guessing that's because I grew up in Alabama, but I'll have to think about it some more.

[Jeff]

That's a new one to me.

(Or is "That's a new one to me anymore" correct?)

[82_28]

Man, you got me fully baffled and fascinated. But you are right. I can't think of what I would use in place of that. What would you eastern Canadians use?

I'm gonna check the archives and stuff when I get the time for uses of "anymore". But my Canadian English set spellcheck has no squiggly line denoting a misspell under "anymore".

One thing I do know is that when I have been in the last few years to inner Chicago and NY that I can't even grasp how anyone understands one another. Everyone is huffy, when they get more and more huffy it seems like their accents increase, but being a westerner who basically uses the word "bro" a lot and "chill" and "hella crazy" and shit like that, I DO NOT GET the east on the surface of it, for sure. I get it and everything's "all good" but there are some linguistic artifacts of our regional displacement and artifacts I would never have noted had you not brought it up, Norton.

Hate to say it, but we were brought up in Colorado, in fact all of the west, AZ, CA, NV, UT, NM etc that we were the only English speakers who literally did not have an accent. All my relatives in PA would remark on our lack of an accent.

I don't think we do, actually. Shit like that is super hard to prove of course. Because what really, is an accent? The only big one is "uptalk" and usually women saying mount-in as opposed to mountain, almost British like.

But we don't have any drawls, staccatos, no odd vowel sounds, no rolls of the tongue -- you know what I mean. We speak like it's spoken on paper -- I think. But I don't know. It's fully subjective. But other English speakers such as Irish people, English, American southerners, Canadians etc have all said that we have no noticeable accent out west. Vancouver people for the most part, do not sound "Canadian" I think. We all sound like Westerners.

I think we kinda talk like all the commercial narrators or something. . . They only put the effect on the voice when they're trying to doll up the arcana of the product. Like with Seattle's soccer team, they hired some British guy and the commercials for tickets and shit always have a British voice.

I dunno anymore.

[Gouda]

It's like we don't know anymore, anymore.

Can also be used at the beginning of a sentence:

Anymore it's like we don't know anymore.

[psynapz]

First such usage this East-cost Yankee'd ever seen:

"Anymore, no one's mind is their own."
— Chuck Palahniuk (Lullaby)

He's also a Northwesterner.

Interesting thread at The Bump on this and related.

And it was well-put on Twitter.

Found it by searching:

chuck palahniuk "the word anymore"

in a few different SE's.

[82_28]

Another thing I just thought of was that I am basically the only only one I know who pronounces February, FebRUary and not FebUary.

In elementary school I remember our librarian, pronounced library, libarry. That even bothered me in 3rd grade.

[psynapz]

Two other new ones (last 5-7 years) for me were:

- "Right?!" As in, "I know, right?!" except without the "I know" part. Drawn out, like "Riiiiiiiieeeet?"

- "But for" meaning "except for" as in, "I would have gone but for my broken foot."

[Luther Blissett]

The eastern working class uses it too. I actually first heard this from my childhood friend who was complaining about his parents - this was about 1990 and we were about ten years old - and he said, "my dad is such a fucking dick anymore," to which I responded with a screwface.

[psynapz]

Another thing I just thought of was that I am basically the only only one I know who pronounces February, FebRUary and not FebUary.

I usually over-pronounce any such bullshit so as to draw sarcastic attention to it in whatever company I may be inhabiting at the time. Do you pronounce the "L" in "almond"? Because you aren't supposed to. So don't. I spell it "ommond" sometimes just to raise a big fuck you to whoever decided the "L" was silent. Fuck you, whoever.

In elementary school I remember our librarian, pronounced library, libarry. That even bothered me in 3rd grade.

That's like a shop teacher missing fingers, FFS.

[Project Willow]

In elementary school I remember our librarian, pronounced library, libarry.

HUGE pet peeve of mine as well. What is this thing the lie-berry, lie-berry? I heard it in school and I hear it often today, especially riding the buses through downtown.

[82_28]

Another thing I just thought of was that I am basically the only only one I know who pronounces February, FebRUary and not FebUary.

I usually over-pronounce any such bullshit so as to draw sarcastic attention to it in whatever company I may be inhabiting at the time. Do you pronounce the "L" in "almond"? Because you aren't supposed to. So don't. I spell it "ommond" sometimes just to raise a big fuck you to whoever decided the "L" was silent. Fuck you, whoever.

In elementary school I remember our librarian, pronounced library, libarry. That even bothered me in 3rd grade.

That's like a shop teacher missing fingers, FFS.

Totally.

But the almond thing must be regional. I don't know anyone who does pronounce Almond without the L.

I have been to the east coast and whatnot and am always amazed at how rude everybody seems. I rude back, I guess, but west coast "style", which comes off as "pansy-ish" maybe, because I am also heartfelt and shit. I dunno, it's a riddle anymore!

[Searcher08]

In the UK we have this awful thing called the Estuary Accent - nearest equivalent might be Jersey accent.

The word 'drawing' becomes 'drawer-ring'
The word 'do' becomes 'does'
At the end of each paragraph is added: 'innit'
Words are pluralised whenever possible.
Conjoin words with -oi


So if Willow was visiting an art school, she could well be asked

"Miss, canoi awsks does you likes moi drawer-rings, innit?"



This could be why our planet is doomed, DOOMED!!!!

[Freitag]

In elementary school I remember our librarian, pronounced library, libarry.

HUGE pet peeve of mine as well. What is this thing the lie-berry, lie-berry? I heard it in school and I hear it often today, especially riding the buses through downtown.

Some sounds are just hard for people to make, I guess. You'll find even very intelligent people pronouncing nuclear "nuke-yoo-lar", jewelry "jew-llery", realtor "real-a-tor", etc.

I have lots of linguistic hang-ups as well, although studying the history of language has reduced that tendency. Language is dynamic and ever-changing, and it was only the invention of writing that allowed us to freeze it in amber and believe there was a "correct" way to speak. Most of my pet peeves are grammatical, as opposed to pronunciation. Being a bit Aspie, I proofread well, and always notice spelling/grammatical errors in news articles.

My biggest pet peeve are trendy, meaningless phrases (like "moving forward", which has become ubiquitous). I predict that the next linguistic monstrosity to emerge from the business world will be the term "reaching out", used to indicate contact of any kind (for example, where I would previously have said "I called Jim" or "I emailed Jim" or "I tried to contact Jim" it will be "I reached out to Jim". The emotional undertone of this phrase is wildly inappropriate for the context in which it's used; "reaching out" sounds like something you do if you're suicidal. I was just beginning to notice it in my previous (office) job, and now I've started hearing it on the radio and TV. On my last day in my former job, I had a spam phone call from a salesman who said he was "reaching out" to me. I was so glad it was my last day

[Searcher08]

In elementary school I remember our librarian, pronounced library, libarry.

HUGE pet peeve of mine as well. What is this thing the lie-berry, lie-berry? I heard it in school and I hear it often today, especially riding the buses through downtown.

Some sounds are just hard for people to make, I guess. You'll find even very intelligent people pronouncing nuclear "nuke-yoo-lar", jewelry "jew-llery", realtor "real-a-tor", etc.

I have lots of linguistic hang-ups as well, although studying the history of language has reduced that tendency. Language is dynamic and ever-changing, and it was only the invention of writing that allowed us to freeze it in amber and believe there was a "correct" way to speak. Most of my pet peeves are grammatical, as opposed to pronunciation. Being a bit Aspie, I proofread well, and always notice spelling/grammatical errors in news articles.

My biggest pet peeve are trendy, meaningless phrases (like "moving forward", which has become ubiquitous). I predict that the next linguistic monstrosity to emerge from the business world will be the term "reaching out", used to indicate contact of any kind (for example, where I would previously have said "I called Jim" or "I emailed Jim" or "I tried to contact Jim" it will be "I reached out to Jim". The emotional undertone of this phrase is wildly inappropriate for the context in which it's used; "reaching out" sounds like something you do if you're suicidal. I was just beginning to notice it in my previous (office) job, and now I've started hearing it on the radio and TV. On my last day in my former job, I had a spam phone call from a salesman who said he was "reaching out" to me. I was so glad it was my last day

OMG - what will the plural of that be?

"I'm sorry I have not got back to PMs from several key members - so I will be doing a reach around to all members in my InBox"