Dialect question - "whenever" in place of "when"

Factual Questions
1

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.

2

It’s definitely the norm in Northern Ireland.

3

I’ve never heard it, even from my DIL from Pittsburgh, parents from WV.

4

I’m not sure what you mean here, there isn’t a paradox. Hiberno-English and Ulster Scots are both dialects spoken in Ireland.

5

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.

6

True enough. I guess I was assuming that if the dictionary described it as an Irish usage it was implying Hiberno-English, but perhaps it was not.

7

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.”)

8

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.

9

Certainly does. Sounds like they’re saying their father had a regular thing where he died once a month or every Sunday or something.

10

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.

11

I grew up in Eastern Tennessee, and heard it quite frequently. I never picked it up, possibly because I was first generation.