I have recently been noticing (possibly as a frequency illusion) a thing where certain people use the word “whenever” instead of “when”. For example they might say, “Whenever I was younger, I was afraid of dogs.” It sounds wrong to my ear but I’ve heard it from enough people now that it’s clearly not just an individual aberration.
I first noticed this with a YouTuber I watch who is from Appalachia, and I’ve heard it now from a couple of other people from Appalachia (or at least the south-east US). But I’ve also noticed it a couple of times now from Irish people. Wiktionary indeed describes this usage as “Ireland, regional US, nonstandard”.
Am I right in guessing that this is a feature of the Appalachian dialect, or is it actually more widely spread in the US? Is there a linguistic connection between Hiberno-English and the Appalachian dialect? I know about the “Scotch-Irish” people but I would have expected their dialect to have more in common with Ulster Scots.
Interesting. The YouTuber in whom I first noticed it is apparently from Eastern Tennessee. Perhaps it is even more locally specific than just the Appalachians.
I’ve definitely heard it, from “ordinary” Americans who I don’t think of as having any specific dialect, and it always sounds weird to me whenever I hear it. (Note the proper use of the word “whenever.”)
This usage is characteristic of Northern Ireland. People say things like “whenever my father died” instead of “when my father died”. This sounds really odd to people outside that speech community, including people in other parts of Ireland.
I first noticed this usage from Drew Carey when he used to host Whose Line Is It Anyway. He would often say “Start the game whenever you hear the music.”
I hear the same thing in a podcaster that I often listen to, who mostly talks about comic books. If I’ve properly absorbed the hints he’s occasionally given about his background, he is originally from Texas.
To be more specific, the game in question was “Newscasters,” where the players would be newscasters with weird quirks. They would play a generic musical sting that sounded like the opening to an “Action News” show to start the game. Drew always said “Start the game whenever you hear the music.”
The music would be heard just once. I would definitely say “when” rather than “whenever.” To me, “whenever you hear the music” suggests that music would occur several times throughout the game, which was not the case.
“The music will start at an unpredictable time in the future. Upon that occurrence, begin play”. The “when” part of “whenever” connotes the “wait until” and the “ever” part of “whenever” connotes the unpredictability.
Compare / contrast
We’ll go to the zoo today whenever it stops raining.
vs
We’ll go to the zoo today whenever it’s 2pm.
They’re both awaiting an event. But one is unpredictable and the other is totally predictable. To me, the raining example is correct usage and the 2pm example is nonstandard usage that’s confusing in my dialect.
Having the “ever” carry the unpredictability semantic is useful.