Quote:
Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000
The general American accent was born out of a combination of midland and northern accents that originated around NYC and Philadelphia
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This might explain accent, but not dialect... I think it's very oudated.
I use "barely" to mean "just recently," as in "Hold on, I
barely got out of the shower." Someone told me that's a very LA thing to say, specifically East LA. I also say "Where's your homegirl?" without giving it a second thought. I think people in LA don't realize how much Mexican-American dialect has become very mainstream throughout SoCal.
Being that I've only ever lived in southern California, do people in the Midwest or New England use "barely" that way?
For the record, the dictionary definition of "barely" is "in a meager manner; scarcely; plainly," as in "a barely furnished room" or "barely enough money for dinner."