Somewhen, somewhy...

Marmel   Sat Mar 04, 2006 2:36 pm GMT
As we know words like somewhere, somehow, anywhere are common in English. What about such words as somewhen, somewhy, everyhow, anywhat.. (list can be continued)? I know they do not exist in standard English, but are they sometimes used in colloquial speech, and if they are, does it sound low-class or how??
From my personal point of view it'd be quite logical to use for example "somewhy" instead of "for some reason". But of course it's not up to me to create new language standards:))
Guest   Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:28 pm GMT
They are never used by anyone where I live (near LA, California). I doubt they're used anywhere else...
Lazar   Sat Mar 04, 2006 7:32 pm GMT
I have never heard any of those words used, and I've never heard of them being used. They don't bear any class connotation for me - they just sound strange.
Guest   Sat Mar 04, 2006 7:56 pm GMT
I think they are used in Czechoslovakia.
Uriel   Sat Mar 04, 2006 9:11 pm GMT
<<somewhen, somewhy, everyhow, anywhat..>>

They do exist, just in slightly different forms:

somewhen = sometime

somewhy = somehow, some reason, some way

everyhow = anyhow

anywhat = any way
Frank   Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:51 am GMT
When I tried Google in search for these words there were actually many results, especially for "somewhy", looks like it's not so uncommon in English to use it... and there were even some matches for "everywhy" "somewho" and "everywho".
Guest   Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:24 pm GMT
And most of those results came from nasty typos (judging from contexts) or pages written by people not native in English.
Marmel   Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:35 pm GMT
Thanks for the answers! What about "nohow", is it a word?
Guest   Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:42 pm GMT
According to my dictionary, nohow and somewhen are words, but I never use, read or hear them.
Guest   Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:41 pm GMT
I've enver heard of "somewhen", but I have heard "no how" as an instensifier of "no way", as in "no way, no how".
Mari   Wed Mar 08, 2006 8:33 pm GMT
I have heard many of these "words" at a sea port.
Unfortunately, I think that the people conversing were not from America and I didn't find out where the boat was from or going to.

I don't recall a "nohow"
but I do remember a "anywho" and some other similar words that I thought of as ailen but cannot pick out by memory. Were used in a slightly informal context....
Marten Ferret   Mon Jun 04, 2007 4:15 pm GMT
Said words are extremely rare and are on the verge of becoming obsolete (out of standard use since 1755). Nevertheless, they are considered by the American Dictionary (Webster's) as being legitimate adverbs.

Just for fun - my favorite word is amn't, a contraction of 'am not'... Most believe I'm attempting to say 'aint' when I use it, somewhy. ;)
Andy Hockey   Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:24 pm GMT
Actually 'Somewhen' is used a lot around my part of the world, Central Southern England.
American   Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:28 pm GMT
I think you're making shit up somewhy!!!
Andy Hockey   Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:38 pm GMT
Actually it's in such common use in West Hampshire and East Dorset. I didn't know is was a dialect word until a few years ago, many of me friends and colleagues still don't know its a dialect word until I tell them.