As expressions go, “gosh” seems tame enough. But when Sali Tagliamonte was a teenager in summer camp, uttering even a more polite version of the word “God” landed her in trouble.
These days, though, “Oh my God” has become so common that even a linguist like her rarely notices it – that is, until she began canvassing Ontario to document the dialects in 13 different communities, from tiny Lakefield to the city of Toronto.
