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From: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Subject: Re: bird bud banana worry hurry furry sod father bought...
Message-ID: <DvL1y5.vz@scn.org>
Sender: news@scn.org
Reply-To: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Organization: Seattle Community Network
References: <DvH6Hy.Jrz@news.hawaii.edu> innumerable articles in several cognate threads <DvFr30.2M4@scn.org>
Date: Sat, 3 Aug 1996 22:18:05 GMT
Lines: 47


In a previous article, mathias@Hawaii.Edu (Gerald B Mathias) says:

>I don't quite get the point.  Are you suggesting everyone should switch
>to American English?
>
>Bart Mathias

No, not at all.  Is "different to" normal in other varieties of English?  

I thought I was pretty clear about the fact that I was describing only 
*my idiolect*, which may not even be typical of educated Seattle usage 
(though I think it's pretty close--my verbal SAT was 780).  I included 
data on my age and place of residence not because I think others should 
convert to growing up in Seattle, but because these factors are (or at 
least I *think* they are) significant in assessing and interpreting 
features of my language use.

>
>: I'm a native speaker (42 y.o.) of American English and have lived most of 
>: my life (all of my first 13 years) in Seattle, near the north end of the 
>: US West Coast.
>
>
>:      >"Bud" has a sound quite different to the other two.
>
>: -- not on phonological grounds but because in my idiolect things are 
>: *never* different (or distinct/dissimilar/divergent) _to_ other things; 
>: likewise, in my idiolect (at *least*, and I think I have millions of 
>: AmEng speakers on my side), things are *never* similar or identical 
>: _from_ other things.  However, they *are* indistinguishable _from_ (never 
>: _to_) other things -- the exception that proves it's English.  Note:  Al-
>: though I don't think I ever *use* it, I accept "different than" as not 
>: objectionable enough to raise a stink over, but "different to", well, no, 
>: that simply isn't said.

..."*in my idiolect/dialect*" perhaps I should have added.  Anybody know, 
historically, whether "different to" or "different from" came first, 
and/or how the one ever yielded to the other?

Leland

--
Liland Brajant ROS'        "Armeo sen kulturo estas malsagxa armeo, kaj
P O Box 30091              malsagxa armeo ne povas venki la malamikon."
Seattle, WA 98103 Usono    --"La Unuecfronto en Kultura Laboro" (30 okt
Tel. (206) 633-2434        1944), _Elektitaj Verkoj de Maux Zedong_ v 3
