Mencken's relative "what"

[Wilson Gray]

Well, that certainly tops Labov's

"Can't no cat get into no coop"!

-Wilso

On 8/23/06, William Salmon <william.salmon at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       William Salmon <william.salmon at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Mencken's relative "what"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I couldn't help passing on this example from Mencken's American
> Language. A quadruple negative, which also happens to contain relative
> 'what' (among other things).
>
> You don't know nobody what don't want nobody to do nothing for 'em, do
> you? (4rth ed, p.469)
>
> ws
>
>
> Quoting Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>:
>
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> > Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: SWAE relative "what"
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Really, Wilson?  I've never heard it, in lower or higher orders (a horrible
> > phrase, btw, even though I know you're implying a smiley face).  But I do
> > hear it from foreign-born English speakers often, including those who have
> > lived here a long time.  I doubt the blend theory though; let's not get
> > carried away with blending as an explanation.
> >
> > Beverly
> >
> > At 08:35 AM 8/17/2006, you wrote:
> >> "What" as a relative is quite common, here in the Colonies. It's a
> >> well-known feature of Southern English and especially of Black
> >> English, at least among the lower orders.
> >>
> >> -Wilson
> >>
> >> On 8/17/06, Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at sussex.ac.uk> wrote:
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> >>> -----------------------
> >>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>> Poster:       Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
> >>> Subject:      Re: SWAE relative "what"
> >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> --On Wednesday, August 16, 2006 11:22 pm -0500 Greg Pulliam
> >>> <pulliam at IIT.EDU> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> > The T and the W are three keys apart--doesn't seem like a typo to me.
> >>> > Maybe some other type of error, though.
> >>> >
> >>> > Still, relative "what" is so common in so many dialects, it seems
> >>> > likely to penetrate SWAE sooner, not later.
> >>>
> >>> I don't think the distance of the keys determines whether it's a typo or
> >>> not.  I frequently type 'ing' when I mean to type 'ion' at the end of a
> >>> word, just because it's a familiar typing pattern.  One's probably more
> >>> likely to do such things at the end of a word rather than the beginning,
> >>> but I wouldn't rule out the typo explanation.
> >>>
> >>> It could also be a blend error:
> >>> Write down one thing a week that you're thankful for.
> >>> Write down once a week what you're thankful for.
> >>>
> >>> Relative pronoun 'what' (or 'wot') strikes me as really, really British--I
> >>> didn't know it was found in US dialects.  But here it's so far from
> >>> standard that it would only be used humorously in a newspaper.  There's a
> >>> discussion of it on one ESL forum where it's described as "very council
> >>> estate"
> >>> <http://www.englishforums.com/English/RelativePronounDefinitionRuns/brprl/Post.htm>
> >>>
> >>> Lynne
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Dr M Lynne Murphy
> >>> Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
> >>> Arts B133
> >>> University of Sussex
> >>> Brighton BN1 9QN
> >>>
> >>> phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
> >>> http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
> >>>
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> >>
> >> --
> >> Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have
> >> found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be
> >> imposed upon them.
> >>
> >> Frederick Douglass
> >>
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>
>
> ~Will Salmon
>
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