Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 11:03:24 +0000 From: Charlotte Thomas Subject: Re: English Dialect Information Exchange Dear Ronald, > On Mon, 18 Mar 1996, Charlotte Thomas wrote: > > > If we did take it upon > > ourselves to say who could and who could not subscibe to the list > > according to the language/dialect they speak, we may be denying that > > person the opportunity to learn and contribute, and denying others > > the opportunty to learn from them. > > Is it Sheffield dialect to write "If we did . . . we may be denying . . ." > rather than "If we did . . . we might be denying . . ."? Or is this example > just a typo? Although I'm doing my PhD in Sheffield, I'm not actually from here. I've only been here since Sepember. I'm actually from Colne in Lamncashire (Sheffield's in Yorkshire), but some features are similar. Anyway, to answer your question ,my dialect would allow me to use either "may" or "might" in this context, meaning the same thing. I must admit, I hadn't even noticed that I'd written one or the other! Charlotte ########################################################## Charlotte Thomas EGP95CMT[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]Sheffield.ac.uk CECTAL Dept. of English Language and Linguistics University of Sheffield Sheffield S10 2TN UK "Why does anyone believe he ought to speak better than he can, and so in the end speak far worse than he might?" (P.Wright, 1974)