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mpg said:
I had always assumed "decimate" meant "to reduce to one-tenth of the original size", but you're saying it actually means "to reduce to nine-tenths of the original size".
Go figure.
-mpg
I guess they are, more accurately, saying that it meant "to reduce to nine-tenths" where as now it means, in common usage, "to reduce drastically." Such is the dynamic nature of language.
From my favorite Pittsburg-born buddy (his truck has a bumper sticker "YINZ"), here's his favorite site specializing in Pittsburg speak: http://www.pittsburghese.com/quiz.shtml
With actual audio of Pittsburghers!
(Earn Pierogo points in the quiz)
Surprisingly, he didn't understand the description of leaving out the copulative verb in Pittsburghese. But he understood the sentences without them!
(And now I understand why my Jr. High English teachers taught me "linking verbs", instead of copulae...)
Wikipedia reports the Pittsburghese trait as the Copula Omission, though calling it African American rather than Scots-Irish or regional. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_be
They then call is a "Zero copula" when it's standard in the language (Russian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Arabic).
Lots of words have taken on meetings that have wandered from their etymological origins. Another verb based on a Latin number is "to quarantine" which is ultimately derived from the Latin word for forty, quadraginta. So by etymological logic, "to quarantine" means "to isolate for a period of forty days." Few usage mavens, however, would quibble over an utterance such as "the shipment was quarantined for two weeks." The core meaning of the verb has survived, but the numeric literalism has not.
Grant Barrett said:
A Pittsburgh woman reports that when she went away to college, she was surprised to find people correcting her grammar when she'd say things like "the car needs washed" or "the kids need picked up." She wonders if she's been saying it wrong all these years.
I moved to Pgh a year and a half ago, and found others making this observation.
A favorite joke:
How would Hamlet's soliloquy sound if Shakespeare had been from Pittsburgh? "or not"
Would the following be similar? Our department was discussing coming in on a Saturday to make up catch up some work. One of the native 'burghers told us that she'd be able to make it because another coworker would "ride me in." It turned out no saddles were involved; one just gave the other a ride.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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