I moved to southeastern Wisconsin from northwestern Wisconsin about a year ago (crossing a dialect boundary). I'm a speech-language pathologist, and over the past year I've heard many of my students say, "I'm going by so-and-so's house" instead of "I'm going to...." I asked my colleagues if this is a regional thing, and they said no. But I hear it so often I'm beginning to wonder if it's regional, and/or generational (similar to "on accident" and "by accident"). Granted, my students have language impairments, but even my articulation students use it. Anyone have any information about this?
In the Philadelphia area (where I was raised) I'm going by would not be uncommon. It would carry a nuance of a short stop as compared to I'm going to.
When I went to college, I was made aware of what might be a Philadelphia local equivalent: I'm going over Mary's house for dinner. (Not over to, although that would not be odd. It's just that the to could be, and often was, omitted. My college roommates saw visions of hot-air balloons wafting overhead.)
I have lived in several different states, and I have been in several different countries. Only in Wisconsin have I heard "I am going by someone's house" Sometimes they will say that they are going "down by someone's house." I would say that it is a regional thing, but only because of my experience living there for over half my life.
I'm glad that other people have heard it too. The first time I encountered it, I thought it was part of the student's language impairment. Now I know not to count it as such.
Then there's the British "I'm going down the shops". American usage senses something missing here: don't you mean down
- to
the shops? But the people who use it don't think of it as a shortened version of something else.
I'm also reminded of the Milwaukee(?)ism "can I come with?" I first heard this from a small child and assumed it was a bit of baby-talk he hadn't yet got shed of (it didn't help that he pronounced the last word "wiff"). Only later did I discover that people all over the upper Midwest encounter this every day and don't give it a second thought.