In Line vs. On Line

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Ray Wartell. I’m calling from Dallas.

All right.

All right, here’s my question. I’ll preface it with a little background.

I was born in the Midwest, lived there until I was about 10 years old, moved to Texas, grew up in Texas. I’ve traveled all over the country, lived in England for a year.

And it wasn’t until I lived on the Northeast, specifically in New York, that I noticed this.

New Yorkers say standing on line instead of standing in line, or waiting on line rather than waiting in line. Never noticed it anywhere else.

It strikes me as odd every time I hear it. Why are New Yorkers backwards in this regard is my question.

Backwards?

What are you saying, mister?

I’m joking. I love New York. I love New Yorkers. I lived there a long time.

I hear you. I’m a New Yorker. I speak to you from 20th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. And I appreciate what you’re saying about the quirks and oddities of this city.

Not only is the economy so heavily dependent, say, on finance, but the language is really weird here. And we all have these, like, strange, arrogant behaviors about us that have to do with we like the fact that we say online, don’t we, New Yorkers?

It seems so. We revel in it. We talk about it as a feature of our speech. This is something, right, Martha? New Yorkers are well known for saying, yeah, we say online. It’s no secret to a New Yorker.

So where does it come from? What are the origins? Or is it just unknown?

It’s just a regional thing. This is clearly a marker that distinguishes New Yorkers and people in New Jersey, too.

And you know what’s really weird is there are pockets, small pockets around the country where they do say online. And I don’t know if this is people who have been influenced by New Yorkers, ex-New Yorkers, but there’s a great dialect map on the web. And you can see little pockets of it around the country.

But you’re right that it’s very, very concentrated in New York. And I don’t think anybody’s ever quite figured this out.

I’ve seen one suggestion that maybe it has to do with German influence on the language because in some parts of the country that were settled by Germans, like parts of Pennsylvania, they’ll say things like on the attic, like there’s an old bed up on the attic. And but I think they just talk funny.

No, I don’t know. I think I think nobody really knows the answer to that. But it does drive those of us outside of New York nuts, wouldn’t you say?

Well, why would it? You don’t live here, so you shouldn’t hear it, right? You should only hear it if you’re here. And then when in New York, do as New Yorkers do.

That’s true. That much is true. Maybe once upon a time there were actual lines that told people where to stand. Maybe some sort of, I don’t know, official buildings, and you literally had to stand on the line to be counted.

I don’t know. That’s one of the theories, and I think it’s pretty interesting, the idea of the tape on the floor that shows you where to stand. And also there’s a difference between getting inline, which is to form a line, and getting online, which is to add yourself to an existing line.

Does that make sense?

Yeah. So there’s kind of a difference in behavior there, too. There are a lot of different ways this could come about.

But as I was saying, one of the problems with online versus inline is that New Yorkers know that’s what they’re supposed to say. And because most of us, including me, aren’t from here, we learn it when we get here, and we take it on as a feature of our language to show, either consciously or unconsciously, that we’re a New Yorker.

And hey, you know what? Everyone does this. No matter where they live, they take on the local language, and it self-perpetuates. It doesn’t need a reason anymore except to say the only reason it needs is to say, I’m a New Yorker. This is what New Yorkers say. Therefore, it’s online.

Oh, really? So it’s sort of a linguistic initiation rite for you guys.

No, it’s a shibboleth. As they say. This is how you prove that you’re a New Yorker, because you say online instead of inline.

So Grant, how long were you in New York before you made the switch?

I don’t know, actually, but I do say both now. I say online and inline, and I don’t, unconsciously, I’ve had people call me on it. I’m like, oh, that’s interesting. I don’t know when I picked it up, but it’s in there.

I still haven’t, but I’ve also spent a lot of time in Texas, and we’re just as stubborn, so that might be.

Yeah, I’ve got to say, you know, New Yorkers up against Texans, boy, that’s a contest you want to see.

Well, you know, I have a friend who moved from Kentucky to New York, and then he moved back to Kentucky, and he said he feels like he added 11 years to his life because of the time that he spent standing on line in New York, as opposed to in line in Kentucky where you don’t stand in line very long because there just isn’t the same concentration of people.

That’s true. So we have that as consolation at least.

Well, thanks, guys. I don’t know if I’m any clearer on this, but it was fun talking about it.

Yeah. I love your show, and I appreciate you letting me be on.

That happens to a lot of people. We’ll send the therapy bill to your address.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Ray. Ray, thank you for calling.

All right. Bye-bye. Have a great day.

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