Using “Whenever” Where Others Would Use “When”

Hi there. You have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Carla. I’m from Madison, Wisconsin.

Hi, Carla. What can we do for you today?

Well, I wondered if whenever, taking the place for when, is a regional occurrence or is it a recent addition?

For example, whenever I introduced you to my family or whenever we got done, I hadn’t heard that until the last few years.

Okay, so you’re talking about somebody who says, whenever I went to the store or something, and they just mean one instance. Is that it?

Right.

And where were these folks from?

I’ve mostly heard it on television shows, and the people were from somewhere in the south.

And where are you from?

Wisconsin.

Wisconsin, gotcha. And you don’t hear it in Wisconsin?

I don’t.

You’re observant, Carla. I think you’ve noticed a regional feature of English, and it is indeed something that belongs to a certain set of Americans because of their heritage and how migration patterns happen.

And let me explain what I mean.

This use of whenever refers to, instead of meaning each time, this whenever means this time.

So ordinarily we say, you know, when I go to the store, I always get the basket instead of the cart, right?

And instead, what we’re saying is, whenever I woke up this morning, I chipped on the cat.

Right?

And that sounds odd to people because most of us don’t use whenever in that way.

Whenever for us is about a recurring condition or a recurring case or a pattern.

But this whenever actually has a name.

It’s been studied by linguists and it’s called the punctual whenever.

It’s a studied grammatical feature, not only in the United States, but in some of the dialects in the United Kingdom as well.

You’ll find it in North America, especially in the northern part of the American South, definitely in Appalachia, and in the Midwest, including Pittsburgh, all the way to parts of Missouri and places in between.

But, you know, it’s not completely unknown in the rest of North America.

You’ll find little pockets of it here and there.

So this punctual whenever is one of several traits in American English that shows up from the Ulster or Scots-Irish linguistic heritage.

It’s a holdover from 18th century immigration.

And as a matter of fact, as I understand it, you may sometimes still hear that punctual whenever in Northern Ireland and in neighboring parts of Scotland and England.

And even a few Australians may use it, though at this point it is largely just an American relic of older speech patterns.

Well, thank you.

That’s a lot, right?

How about that, Carla?

I mean, that’s pretty cool, right?

Yeah, I’m partly Scotch-Irish and I’ve never heard it in my clan.

Yeah, so what happens is these features sometimes last and sometimes don’t.

So when they stick around, it’s an accident of history.

There’s no rhyme or reason, but when they do stick around, they tend to stick around in groups of people rather than individuals.

There is a really great academic paper with a fantastic name called My Mother, Whenever She Passed Away, She Had Pneumonia, The History and Functions of Whenever.

Oh, my gosh.

It was in the Journal of English Linguistics.

It’s by Michael Montgomery and John Kirk, great linguists, published in 2001.

So, Carla, how great is that history right there in your ear?

Yeah.

It’s very interesting. Thank you.

You’re welcome. Thanks for being so observant.

And anytime you have other linguistic observations, bring them to us,

And we’ll see if we can puzzle them out together, all right?

I will, thank you.

All right. Take care of yourself.

Thanks, Carla.

Bye.

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