So cycling is political act??

[jessmarimba]

That's funny - I never noticed that the phrasing there wasn't standard! Now that I think about it, I'd guess it's a variation on the more extreme "wants verb-ing" (as in, "that dress wants washing" ), which I'd pick up immediately as Appalachian.

I do say "Ya's" instead of y'all on occasion, and I know that's a midwest thing from Mom.

I'm from Richmond, VA - and my dad's family has lived there or slightly east of there since the 1650s. So I'd imagine that I either picked that up living in middle Tennessee in college or from reading a lot.

[jessmarimba]

Just wanted to come back and say that my mom is laughing at me now.

She just asked, "So if we're looking at one chair with a bad paint job and one with old fabric, what would you say," and I answered with "That one needs painted and that one needs reupholstered"

She replies "I guess we can only buy new chairs from now on."

(I'll stop hijacking now too!)

[owlice]

Just wanted to come back and say that my mom is laughing at me now.

She just asked, "So if we're looking at one chair with a bad paint job and one with old fabric, what would you say," and I answered with "That one needs painted and that one needs reupholstered"

She replies "I guess we can only buy new chairs from now on."

(I'll stop hijacking now too!)

Oh, just saw this!! lol!! So your mom doesn't use that construction?

[jessmarimba]

She implied that it was acceptable in grammar school, but that she hadn't thought about it in years. Dad is definitely very proper about his grammar, too.

It's most likely from waiting tables in ruralish TN, to try and sound more like the customers. Mimicry for better tips! But I did study Russian for awhile and they don't really have a verb "to be" so you couldn't say something like "that chair needs to be reupholstered" (not that I know the Russian verb for reupholster).

[lph]

(not that I know the Russian verb for reupholster).

jessmarimba, you disappoint me

[owlice]

jessmarimba, well, heck, Virginia is definitely included in the Appalachian states! I don't usually hear that construction from Virginians, but that could be because I hear people from northern Virginia about a bazillion times more than people in other areas of Virginia (and most of them are from someplace else, anyway). Or not. I'd expect to hear that construction more in the southwestern part of VA than in Richmond; Tennessee might have done it to you, too, but listen for it in your mother's speech. I'd be curious as to whether she uses it. If you hadn't noticed that phrasing before, you'd have probably noticed it in college (or in your reading), so I think it likely you grew up hearing it. Heck, listen for it in your dad's speech, too; with his family's long history in Virginia... well, I'm wondering where those folks came from and whether there were Scots speakers in the mix.

And the construction you're after for the dress is "that dress wants washed."

[marni]

my own regionalisms are an inability to say a sentence without an automatic "ya know" (SoCal in the 1950 and later) and an acquired use of "yu'ns for you all which is a north carolina coastal useage but very similar to my second languages (dutch) useage of "jullie" for you as a group (third person plural.)

marni