doesn't/don't

[Lynne Murphy]

> At 9:35 -0500 9/03/04, Page Stephens wrote:
>> I should have said third but then this is not the first time I have
>> uploaded in haste and repented at leisure.
>>
>> Page

then
Barbara Need <nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU> wrote:
> What makes your friend think it was? Does s/he have any examples?
> Barbara Need

It's not standard, but it's certainly widespread/old (which probably led to
the correspondent's friend thinking it must be old standard).  My
grandmother, who worked as a secretary and later in life authored a local
history book (so by no means an illiterate person), generally said
'he/she/it don't', and my father does in casual speech as well, and his
sisters say it even more frequently.   (My mother, who adored her
mother-in-law and who, incidentally, says 'between you and I', still hasn't
quite got over that she married into family that says 'it don't'...)

DARE has it as 'esp among speakers with little formal educ'--but apparently
not any particular region.

To my knowledge, such people don't say 'It do', but person agreement is
similarly lost in some dialects'/registers' negation of 'be'--i.e., _ain't_.

Lynne

Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics

Department of Linguistics and English Language
Arts B133
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton BN1 9QN
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