better had ~ had better: semantics

[Damien Hall]

Wilson Gray and dInIs commented yesterday on 'better had', as in

"Yo better had listen" = "It would be very advisable for you to listen"

It sounds as if this might have the same motivation (pardon me for using such a
vague term) as the standard British

"You had better [listen, etc]" or "You'd better [listen, etc]"

As in "better had", the "had" has no effect on the tense of the main verb,
though I hadn't noticed that about my own dialect until Wilson pointed it out
about his.

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania