doesn't/don't

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Mar 9, 2004, at 7:45 AM, Lynne Murphy wrote, about 3 sg. "don't":

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

as i recall, it crops up in many parts of the english-speaking world.

in some places and at some times it's been associated with the *upper*
class.  in late-19th and early-20th century england, for instance.  it
was a conspicuous feature of lord peter wimsey's very U variety.

> 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_.

there are varities with completely leveling in favor of do/don't.  but
the most common system has levelling only in the negative -- pretty
much a textbook example of leveling only in the more marked category.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)