I've observed a curious difference between US and British English.
US English:
A: "What are you doing this weekend?"
B: "I'm visiting with my grandmother."
A: "On your own?"
B: "No, I'm visiting with my grandmother with my sister."
British English:
A: "What are you doing this weekend?"
B: "I'm visiting my grandmother."
A: "On your own?"
B: "No, I'm visiting my grandmother with my sister."
AJ
I disagree. I'm American and I use your supposed British English. I believe that you are mistaking a regional dialect with the entirety of American English speakers. Very bad supposition and disrespects many Americans.
It is no disrespect to the elephant to suppose they resemble snakes if your view is limited to their trunk.
I'm also American and I've heard both versions used by people of many social classes and regions. I've seen a lot of the elephant, though I do not claim to have seen all of it.
American here, but sorry, never used the first version and don't know any native speakers who would.
I do love the old saw about England and the US being two countries divided by a common language. It is often too true!
I've occasionally heard the first part of line one, but never the second part. Yeah, most Americans say it the "British way" as you put it
Another American here (New England, but I spent quite a few years in the South) who would never use the phrasing you've labeled "U.S." In fact, I don't think anybody uses it that way.
I've known people who say "visiting with" - I tend to associate it with ladies of a certain age - but the phrase is not synonymous with "visiting". It means "spend time chatting with". Visiting with someone often involves visiting them, but doesn't necessarily have to. They may be the visitor, or maybe you ran into them at the grocery store or something.
I was born and raised in the American southeast, mostly Virginia and Georgia, and I can vouch for that interpretation as well.
The Southernism "visiting with" really has nothing to do with actual visiting, much as "fixing to" has nothing to do with repair work.
The Aussie version generally goes:
A: "What ya doing on the weekend?"
B: "Visiting Granny."
A: "By ya self?"
B: "Nah, takin' Sis as well."
US English:
A: "What are you doing this weekend?"
B: "I'm visiting with my grandmother."
A: "On your own?"
B: "No, I'm visiting with my grandmother with my sister."
Most Americans I know aren't so formal in their speech. You are far more likely to hears something like:
A: "Any plans for the weekend?"
B: "Yeah, going to my grandma's." (house implied)
A: "Alone?"
B: "No, sis is going too."
Most Americans I know aren't so formal in their speech.
I exaggerated to demonstrate my point ;)
AJ
"visiting with" - a very common usage in the US South. Same as "ax" for ask, "fixin to" for "I'll get around to it one day"
5/22/2019, 9:18:50 PM
"visiting with" - a very common usage in the US South. Same as "ax" for ask, "fixin to" for "I'll get around to it one day"
In the years I spent in the South, I mostly heard "visiting with" to mean "talking with my neighbor over the backyard fence." I never once heard a white Southerner use "ax" for ask. "I was just fixin' to do that" meant "I'm getting ready to."
I never once heard a white Southerner use "ax" for ask.
The key word in your comment is white. Since I changed places of employment from the north side of town to the south side of town, I have been exposed to more colloquialisms and completely improper English in the past three months than I had in the previous six years.
I've also noticed that SOL authors for whom English isn't the native language and who learned US English also tend to use 'visit with' rather than 'visit'.
However if the object of the visit is a place rather than a person, there's no 'with'. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for examples of visits to personified objects to see how that dilemma is resolved ;)
AJ
"Visit with" is an idiom - https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/visit+with
And according to the Cambridge dictionary, it is so in the UK as well - https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/visit-with-sb
But for the claimed idiomatic use, the examples could all have had 'with' expunged and the meaning would have been substantially unchanged. All of the examples shown necessarily involve travel to the object of the 'visit with' so they haven't made a case for it meaning solely to converse or chat to'.
My understanding is that the Cambridge Dictionary is intended primarily for learners of US English. It doesn't say so in their 'about' but there's a clue in the link you provided.
The Oxford Dictionary mentions 'visit with' as meaning 'chat' but specifies it's specific to North America.
Does visit with really mean just 'chat'?
A: "What took you so long? All we needed was some milk"
B: "I met Calypso in the store and I stood and visited with her for a while."
That just sounds wrong to me, even though I've become inured to 'visit with' because of its usage by SOL authors.
AJ
The Oxford Dictionary mentions 'visit with' as meaning 'chat' but specifies it's specific to North America.
Not just North America, but regional dialect within America. It's a Southernism, or at least much more current usage in the South.
Does visit with really mean just 'chat'?
A: "What took you so long? All we needed was some milk"
B: "I met Calypso in the store and I stood and visited with her for a while."
Yes, that's correct usage.
That just sounds wrong to me, even though I've become inured to 'visit with' because of its usage by SOL authors.
I wouldn't use it, myself. I lived in the South long enough to be familiar with the idiom, but my own usage is still largely Vermont Yankee, which doesn't include "visit with".
B: "I met Calypso in the store and I stood and visited with her for a while."
That just sounds wrong to me, even though I've become inured to 'visit with' because of its usage by SOL authors.
Why does that sound wrong? You didn't visit Calypso. You went to the store and when you bumped into her there you visited with her. Talked to her. Spent time with her. Which is why it took you a long time just to buy some milk.
As far as this thread goes, it would be more interesting to know what Awnlee's wife has to say about him spending so much time with Calypso. :)
it would be more interesting to know what Awnlee's wife has to say about him spending so much time with Calypso. :)
Another interesting question is who is this Calypso? It is an unusual name. The only two women with that name I can think of are a nymph from Greek Mythology and the sea goddess from Pirates of the Caribbean.
In either case, how does he know her and how is it he's managing to just run into her at a store?
Why does that sound wrong?
It's predominantly cultural difference, but looking at the dictionary examples of 'visit with', to me there's always the implication that the subject makes some sort of initiative to initiate the chat such as travelling to someone's location, and that's not consistent with chatting after a chance encounter.
I bow to your superior knowledge of the usage, but I think I'll stick with the familiarity of British English.
AJ
