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[adventious]

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wheres-me-a-dog-heres-you-a-dog-the-souths-most-unusual-regionalism

Where's Me a Dog? Here's You a Dog: The South's Most Unusual Regionalism

By Sarah Laskow
Decemeber 02, 2015

Regions of America have their own grammar, just like they have their own vocabulary.

This discovery began with a blog titled “Here’s you a blog,” which Larry Horn, one of the project’s founders, had come across. This blogger had first come across this grammatical quirk–”here’s you a…”–while traveling in Kentucky: a post office clerk had handed over a stamp featuring a dog, and said, “Here’s you a dog.” The phrase delighted the blogger, and she started using it to label pictures of dogs, until she realized she could apply it to other nouns–like her blog.

Compared to vocabulary and accents, the regional variations of English grammar in America have not been studied much. So when Wood and his colleagues at the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project started documenting variations, they quickly found unusual constructions—including one that’s not only unique to the American South but that has no parallel in any language they’ve looked at so far.

The linguists wanted to know if “here’s me a…” could be turned into a question—”where’s me a..?” One of their first steps: just Google that phrase. Immediately, they started finding examples. They’re all over the internet, mostly on social media and in the comments sections of websites.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wheres-me-a-dog-heres-you-a-dog-the-souths-most-unusual-regionalism

[peripatetic_soul]

Hi,

Hello,
It's not only Ohio where they call a "trolley" a shopping cart. The same is true in Pittsburgh, PA. Also, lack of the copula BE is typical of Pittsburghese: The car needs washed (often times "washed" is pronounced as "worsht" from Irish influence; similarly "rinched" for "rinsed").

Also, "ain't" is so common that many of my ESL students have asked me the "rule" for its usage!

Imagine having to learn English as a second language in "dem" places. ha

[nomad soul]

One of my favorite documentaries is "Do You Speak American?" hosted by journalist Robert MacNeil for Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 2005. Resources and details about the book and documentary can be found on PBS's website.

The videos are worth a look and can be viewed in full on YouTube starting with Do You Speak American? - episode 1.