Jeremy calls from Charleston, South Carolina, to say that when he lived in southeast New Hampshire, he was puzzled by the use of a seemingly negative response to indicate something positive. For example, if he said I drive a red car and his listener...
A teacher in Oakley, Vermont, noted a curious construction among his students while teaching in Maine. They would say things like “We’re all going to the party, and so isn’t he” or “I like to play basketball, and so doesn’t he.” Primarily heard in...
Regional grammar can be just as rich and diverse as regional vocabulary. The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project maps grammatical features that vary across American English, using research and survey data to show where they cluster. Examples include...
