Since I haven't been going to classes this summer, I've been around Hoosiers a lot more. One thing I've picked up on is their weird grammar with things that need doing. For example, let's say the paint is peeling off your barn. A Hoosier may say "The barn needs painted." Car looking dirty? "It needs washed." I've even heard "It needs warshed." Now the word "warshed" is something I thought to be limited to Missouri (miss-ur-ah), but I have heard it more than once from Hoosiers and I'm guessing it's much more widespread than I had thought.
However, before I say anything about whether this is correct or incorrect grammar, the
Boston Globe had an article on this very issue:
Needs fixed is usually labeled a regionalism, most familiar in western Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio, in the Midland dialect area. The Oxford English Dictionary labels it Scottish, Irish, and northern English as well, and it has friends in Australia and New Zealand.
So it looks like I've just got to get used it it. It's gonna be wicked hard.
