LL-L 'Negation' 2006.06.10 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 10 June 2006 * Volume 02
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: LL-L 'Negation' 2006.06.07 (02) [E/LS]

>From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
>Subject: Negation
>
>German, Low Saxon, Dutch and English dialects abound with double negative
>constructions. Afrikaans made it a rule. Appalachian, African American
>Vernacular English, other Southern US dialects, Irish and Scottish English
>dialects ("I'm not late, amn't I not?") and many other varieties use double and
>
This *"I'm not late, amn't I not?" sounds a bit peculiar. To put it into
the substrate language to get a form more familiar to me to work with,
it's *"I'm no late, amn't I no?". I think this would always be "I'm no
late, am I?", the opposite being "I'm late, amn't I?" or "I'm late, am I
no?". In English and Scots, confirmation tags are always the opposite
polarity from the main declaration.

However, double negatives do occur as a rule in Scots. When used, I
think it's usually done by using the negatives "nae" or "nane" in place
of the positive "ony". I think the semantics are perhaps a bit subtle.
In answer to the question "Ar ye no wanting ony?" you might hear:

"Na, I'm no wantin nane." - this is kind of dismissive, though polite
enough.
"Na, I'm no wantin ony." - this is slightly sarcastic because it's an
echo of the question.

The second answer might be modified in some way to avoid sarcasm: "Na.",
"Na, I'm aa richt.", "Na, I'm no wantin ony the noo.", etc. It's easier
just to use the double negative!

But as usual in Scots, the meaning of anything can vary considerably
depending on the intonation, which tends to have a wider range than in
English.

Note again the form of question "Ar ye no wanting ony?". In English
perhaps it would be more usual to say "Do you want any?". While in
English you can also say "Don't you want any?" and in Scots you can also
say "Ar ye wantin ony?" it seems to me that in Scots it's more usual to
use the negative form of a question:

English: "Are you going?"
Scots: "Ar ye no gaun?"

English: "Will you stop doing that?"
Scots: "Ar ye gaun'ae no dae that?"

Often a negative is used to express the idea of something being
tentative or undiscovered:

English: "I'll see if I can do that."
Scots: "I'll see if I canna dae that."

English: "I'll just go and check on what they might be up to."
Scots: "I'll juist awa an see what they'r no daein."

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Negation

Thanks, Sandy.

> Often a negative is used to express the idea of something being
> tentative or undiscovered:
> 
> English: "I'll see if I can do that."
> Scots: "I'll see if I canna dae that."
> 
> English: "I'll just go and check on what they might be up to."
> Scots: "I'll juist awa an see what they'r no daein."

I've noticed that Australian English speakers often do it the way of the first
Scots example ("I'll see if I can't do that"), and I've been wondering if this is
(not) a case of Scots influence or substrate.

However, the Scots structure of the second example does not seem particularly
familiar to me.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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