SWAE relative "what"

[Beverly Flanigan]

Really, Wilson?  I've never heard it, in lower or higher orders (a horrible
phrase, btw, even though I know you're implying a smiley face).  But I do
hear it from foreign-born English speakers often, including those who have
lived here a long time.  I doubt the blend theory though; let's not get
carried away with blending as an explanation.

Beverly

At 08:35 AM 8/17/2006, you wrote:
>"What" as a relative is quite common, here in the Colonies. It's a
>well-known feature of Southern English and especially of Black
>English, at least among the lower orders.
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 8/17/06, Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at sussex.ac.uk> wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
>>Subject:      Re: SWAE relative "what"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>--On Wednesday, August 16, 2006 11:22 pm -0500 Greg Pulliam
>><pulliam at IIT.EDU> wrote:
>>
>> > The T and the W are three keys apart--doesn't seem like a typo to me.
>> > Maybe some other type of error, though.
>> >
>> > Still, relative "what" is so common in so many dialects, it seems
>> > likely to penetrate SWAE sooner, not later.
>>
>>I don't think the distance of the keys determines whether it's a typo or
>>not.  I frequently type 'ing' when I mean to type 'ion' at the end of a
>>word, just because it's a familiar typing pattern.  One's probably more
>>likely to do such things at the end of a word rather than the beginning,
>>but I wouldn't rule out the typo explanation.
>>
>>It could also be a blend error:
>>Write down one thing a week that you're thankful for.
>>Write down once a week what you're thankful for.
>>
>>Relative pronoun 'what' (or 'wot') strikes me as really, really British--I
>>didn't know it was found in US dialects.  But here it's so far from
>>standard that it would only be used humorously in a newspaper.  There's a
>>discussion of it on one ESL forum where it's described as "very council
>>estate"
>><http://www.englishforums.com/English/RelativePronounDefinitionRuns/brprl/Post.htm>
>>
>>Lynne
>>
>>
>>Dr M Lynne Murphy
>>Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
>>Arts B133
>>University of Sussex
>>Brighton BN1 9QN
>>
>>phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
>>http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
>>
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>
>
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