Sleep / Asleep

I've actually wondered before if it's "a sleep" or "asleep" :-) I guess this answers that! And yes, my even wondering that is absurd now that I think about it ;-)

Yes, I live in Texas and have heard similar here. I've also heard other things which would most likely send you into hysterics. ;-)

i've lived in atlanta my whole life and i've always said asleep, but the southern dialect can be a little lazy at times and ive heard sleep too. not every southerner says it though

This is one I see frequently in my students' papers here in southern Virginia. :(

I think what is the real issue here is that people aren't so much lazy, inasmuch as it is merely a connected speech issue.

Jo Hawk, if your Ss are using that in their writings, they simply need to be reminded the the written language is greatly different, and much more grammatically demanding, than that of the spoken.

I do agree with AO as far as the prefix is concerned, but I don't agree with the examples used to demonstrate his/her point.

(caveats: please excuse any typoes that may have occurred whilst typing from my wireless device.)

Yeah yeah, Porsche, I know... sheesh what was I thinking. I realized it when I wrote it and I wrote it anyway for some reason. Anyway, I think Ekskalibur's right: southerners aren't actually saying "when I got home, he was sleep on the couch." It just sounds like they're saying that because they're eliding the "a-." My guess, at least.

I haven't actually heard this speech pattern in my area. I am curious. Do they only do it with a preceding "s" or is it with all other vowel or consonant combinations? I.e., I'm sleep, you're sleep, he would be sleep if..., etc.

Etymologically, the "a-" in "asleep" comes from "on". The OED hints that this is also the source of the prefix in "a-fishing" and "a-hunting".

Why would anyone say this like this? Perhaps use the word "sleeping" instead....or "asleep" as you suggest, but if they are saying it way you explained, wrong wrong wrong.

I have heard it as a dialectic form here in the Deep South. My father used to tell me I was "only sweet when you're 'sleep." I never thought of it as anything but baby/sleepy/love talk, i.e., "You 'sleep, sweetie?" I can't imagine it leaving the realm of late nights and lullabies.

They's too a-sleepy for to using the right grammers. lol

Srsly, no I've never encountered that misuse, and I have lived in Northern Arkansas for ten years.

And why is it that Northerners can't understand the South's warmth in using incorrect words? For that matter, it's not so much incorrect as it is part of the Southern dialect. When you spell it "sleep" you make it look like they are using the wrong word altogether. When you spell it "'sleep", you show that it is a contraction of the correct word.

I guess English is not your native/first language. It's more flexible and complicated than what your primary school teachers have taught you. Nowadays, English has lost the meanings and rules. So, get along and try to adopt the location and the situation.
Apology to whomever get offended.

In the UK, Americans are that we accuse of not respecting and following the grammatical rules. And, now is funny that Americans are accusing one another.
I laughed so loud when heard an angry Somali cursing a customs official saying: "The you, the country, the fuck."

As a nativ Sutherner, I don't ever recall anyone saying, "He was sleep." That must be dialectical to a few small areas.

@AO the a- forefast (prefix) does not come from the ge- forefast. The a- has been in English since Old English/Anglo-Saxon. It was a common forefast ... much more common than now.

The ge-, for the most part has been lost in nativ English words. Gebur and gemoot are two that come to mind which are still found in the wordbooks. Enuff was once genog. Ge- did change to y- in a few words like yclept. However, today it's mostly found in German loanwords like gesundheit, gelande, asf ...

@Englishman ... The Brits hold no high ground in changing of English. The Brits stopped using the "proper" participle "gotten" long ago and seem to be fast losing the subjunctiv such as saying, "If I were ..." .

I was unsure of how to properly use sleep/asleep. Now I know!

It's one of the more annoying things that I've yet come across. Whenever I hear it, a Trick Daddy tune pops into my head.