Words form powerful symbolic networks and meshes of meaning within our brains. So I’m curious if it’s confusing for New Yorkers to hear people talking about things happening or available online, since New Yorkers have the peculiar habit of calling what most other American refer to as “in line” as “on line.”
Perhaps this little grammatical quirk does cause brief moments of cognative dissonance in New Yorkers’ brains, but probably no more than when somebody refers to inline skating does in my mind.
Curious people with little else on their plates want to know.
1 response so far ↓
1 nailer // Nov 26, 2004 at 5:59 pm
I’d often wondered about that, myself. I thought I was the only person who noticed that little peculiarity. While we mainly think of it as a New York thing, though, I’ve noticed that it’s pretty much the whole NorthEastern US, west to about Chicago.
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