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It's a regionalism to use "any more" to mean "nowadays." It's supposed to be used in a negative sentence, e.g. "Nobody wears sneakers any more." But there are parts of the country where people will say, "Any more, everybody gets up early." Which regions are they?

Laurel
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  • Take a look at this chapter to see the map for the distribution of positive anymore. – John Lawler Jun 05 '17 at 23:06
  • The positive "anymore" is certainly considered correct here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Not being a native Pittsburgher, I'm not comfortable using it, but native residents are. Pittsburghers are also fond of saying things like, "The grass needs cut," and "Pass me a gum band, will you?" (i.e., pass me a rubber band), plus the highly unusual "Yinz," as in "Are yinz going to the Stillers game on Sunday?" (Yinz is the Pittsburgh equivalent of the Southern ya'll, I guess, and "Stillers" is the "correct" pronunciation of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team). – rhetorician Jun 05 '17 at 23:51
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    Answered at Should "anymore" only be used in a negative statement or question? (and further in the Wikipedia article). // Parts of the country from which English spread? – Edwin Ashworth Jun 06 '17 at 00:20
  • That might be true and I find it unlikely. I say that because here in Britain and in those parts of Australia, Zimbabwe, California and Colorado that I've visited, some of the people I spoke to used any more to mean nowadays… though of course I can't speak for those I didn't talk to.

    I've no idea where Any more, everybody gets up early is from unless it proves that where you live, any more is so clearly equivalent to nowadays, the similarity is more important than the syntax.

    In fact Any more, everybody gets up early reads like you meant Any more, nobody gets up early

     – Robbie Goodwin Jun 06 '17 at 19:02
  • There is a map in Kosmonaut's answer to What are the possible meanings of positive “any more”? – herisson Sep 07 '17 at 18:19

1 Answers1

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Wikipedia lists several regions:

Positive anymore occurs in some varieties of North American English, especially in the Midlands variety spoken in parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, New Jersey, and Missouri; its usage extends to Nevada, Utah and some other western U.S. states.

Positive anymore also occurs in parts of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Some linguists theorize that the North American usage derives from Irish or Scots-Irish sources.

Positive anymore

For a better picture, the Harvard Dialect Survey collected data and made maps for the US:

He used to nap on the couch, but he sprawls out in that new lounge chair anymore
a. this use of "anymore" is acceptable (4.98%) [red on map]
b. this use of "anymore" is unacceptable (92.89%) [blue on map]
c. not sure (2.13%) [green on map]
(10756 respondents)

All results

Choice a: this use of "anymore" is acceptable

Choice b: this use of "anymore" is unacceptable

Choice c: not sure

Laurel
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    My problem with these maps (and I've looked at all the maps this project has produced) is that they don't look significantly different from population density maps. How do we know it's not just, say, 3 percent, or 7 percent, or whatever, think it's okay to use positive anymore? Sometimes there's a bit of geographic concentration. But is it really convincing? – Xanne Jun 06 '17 at 07:44
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    If anything, the map seems to indicate that this usage is rare but not unheard of across the country with no particular regional bias. – mattdm Jun 06 '17 at 07:53
  • @Xanne: if you go to the Harvard dialect survey website and look at the breakdown by state, you find that 15% of the people in Indiana and Kentucky think positive anymore is okay, but less than 4% of the people in New York or California. The survey is 20 years old, so the percentages are undoubtedly higher nowadays, but it's definitely regional. – Peter Shor Sep 09 '22 at 12:42