Quote Originally Posted by Nanci
Haven't heard that phrase since I moved to Florida!

But I _did_ learn recently that the reason Minnesotans say "Will you borrow me $5?" rather than "Will you lend me $5?" is because that is the correct Norwegian way to say it, and it just transferred over to English. And here I'd been thinking I'd just learned it wrong!

Nanci
Weeelll ... In Norwegian the phrase could be "Kan du låne meg $5" or "Kan jeg få låne $5 av deg?" I.e. Will you lend me $5 or Can I borrow $5. Same verb in both. "Låne" looks and sounds more like lend than borrow and even more like loan, and it means all three. So I can see where Norskies might not learn the difference in English, though it seems to me they'd be more likely to learn "lend" or "loan" than "borrow". But go figure. People keep doing the unexpected all the time. Makes it more fun to be a social scientist.