Dialect nerding with Mris

[mrissa]

Okay, another dialect question. Haven’t done one in awhile. Does your home dialect contain the phrase “a goin’ concern,” usually applied to small children? And if not, would you still have some sense of what “that child is a goin’ concern” might mean if someone else used it, or would you be completely in the dark?

(Sometimes when I’m talking to

Comments

[elsmi]

I can apply that phrase to businesses, but applied to children I haven't the foggiest idea what it would mean. (Northern California dialect.)

[jry]

This.

[boxofdelights]

Me three. About some enterprise we're discussing, it means we're not just imagining or remembering it, it is real, actual, present-day. About a small child, I can't even guess.

[tesla_aldrich]

Yes, just as they all said.

[klwilliams]

I've never used it, but I would get what it meant if I heard it.

Many years ago, when Terry Bisson and I were scouting locations for the SF in SF reading series, he asked one of the people in a bookstore a question. I don't remember exactly what the phrasing was, but it was very Southern. (He's from Kentucky, I believe.) I understood it, because my family is from Texas, but the woman looked blank until he translated. I thought it was va ery interesting exchange.

[mrissa]

I love dialect nerding like that.

[tewok]

I've never heard it and don't know what it means. (Maryland/DC)

[nancylebov]

Same for me. Delaware/Philadelphia.

[fmsv]

I don't think I've ever heard that phrase applied to any small children before this. I'd think of applying it to a business, without the apostrophe. (Native Minnesotan)

[genevra]

Same here, also Native Minnesotan.

[ellen_fremedon]

I'm from Northeast Iowa, and I would apply that phrase to businesses or events, but not to people.