"at" at end of sentence

Benjamin Fortson fortson at FAS.HARVARD.EDU
Fri Mar 22 16:10:56 UTC 2002


THe use of "at" at the end of a sentence is responsible for the name of a
whole group of inhabitants of New Orleans, the Yats, from the greeting
"Where y'at?" = "How are you"? These are the folks whose speech has often
been compared with Brooklynese.

Sentence-final "at" is common all over the South, in my experience.

Ben



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