"I just barely got here." I used to hear my high school students say this when I taught in Austin, TX. The word "barely" was used to emphasizes that the speaker arrived *just now*. I had never heard this growing up in northern NY and we moved to Wisconsin about three years ago and I haven't heard it since. This week a friend of mine updated her status on facebook saying something like "So-and-so just realized she hasn't heard 'I just barely got here' since she moved from California." So I know this happens in California as well. I am a Spanish speaker and most of my students who used "barely" this way were growing up in households where Spanish was spoken. Is it possible that this use of "barely" has come from a non-exact translation of acabar or apenas and has since been incorporated into English? The idea that Spanish is involved also seems reasonable since the two places that I know of where this happens are Texas and California. Am I on the right track here?
I think I have heard "barely" used this way all my life - a WASP hosehold. I would have guessed it was a Southernism.
Seems very familiar and natural to me, too. I have lived in the Philadelphia / New York area nearly all of my life. My family heritage is mixed European stock, although my childhood neighborhood was ethnically diverse. The just is optional: I barely got here would mean the same thing to me.
torpeau and Glenn, you both seem to suggest that although this sounds natural you are unsure about having heard this. torpeau, you wrote "I think I have heard" and Glenn you said "Seems very familiar." I heard this at least once a day in Austin and my friend heard it all the time in central Cali. Are we talking about the same broad usage or is this just something that doesn't sound all that strange to either of you?
"I barely made it here" makes sense, but "I just barely got here" doesn't sound right. "Barely" describes a struggle - maybe traffic or time constraint, but not the timing itself. You can say "I barely made it here this morning" in the afternoon to describe your experience, but you can't say "I just barely got here this morning." So I think the person used the word "barely" incorrectly.