Sure don't

[Montgomery Michael]

Dear Larry

Belated thanks for the link to the Atlantic story.
The usage sure isn't restricted to either Texas or to
"don't."  I've heard "sure don't," "sure isn't," and
"sure hasn't" all my life, in various parts of the
South (mainly the Kurathian South Midland).  I'm not
so sure about "sure won't or "sure can't."  I can
think of contexts for them, but right off only in
response to negative statements.  Let me think about
this.

The fact that Lise found it prevalent among locals in
southern Illinois suggests South Midland to me.

Michael


--- Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society
> <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Sure don't
>
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>
> At 2:20 PM -0500 7/31/07, Scot LaFaive wrote:
> >I asked, "Do you have any maps?"  She said, "We
> sure don't."
> >
> >While reading some reports at work I came across
> this construction a few
> >times. I'm familiar with using "sure" as an adverb
> when the answer is in the
> >affirmative ("Yes, we sure do."), but not
> otherwise. The writer is probably
> >an L2 speaker (her L1, if not English, would
> probably be Spanish). The
> >supposed speaker of "We sure don't" is in Texas.
> Anyone know if this is a
> >regional construction in Texas?
> >
> >Scot
> >
>
> Not just Texas, I'd guess, but general Southern and
> [South?] Midland,
> unless I miss my guess.
>
> Michael Montgomery and I just happen to have had an
> exchange on this
> topic last week.  With what I hope is his
> non-objection, I'll
> reproduce Michael's question here and my response,
> of possible
> interest for the reference to the cute (if somewhat
> ill-informed)
> piece in the Atlantic I cite below by the humorist
> Ian Frazier.  The
> cartoon in the piece is especially nice.
>
> LH
>
> [MM:]
> >With regard to regional negatives that sometimes
> >perplex, I have long wondered how much of a role
> >intonation might play.  Twenty years ago Lise Winer
> (a
> >Canadian) told me that when she went to
> SIU-Carbondale
> >to teach, she was confused by "I sure don't" being
> >expressed with the same intonation as "I sure do."
> >She had been used to the two having very different
> >patterns, but when she would ask a salespeople if
> >their shop had a certain product and got the
> response
> >"we sure don't" with a high falling contour on
> >"don't," she was mystified.  Do you think this
> might
> >be a Midlandism?
>
> [LH:]
> I think so; I've come across it both in person and
> on screen (big and
> small) representations and at first was very
> confused, until I
> recognized what it was doing.  What I couldn't
> figure out is if it
> was intended as a garden path (helped along by the
> parallel
> intonation you mention), an attempt to be cheerfully
> polite, or
> something else.
>
> Googling it, I find a reference to "The Positive
> Negative" in an
> Atlantic Monthly piece by Ian Frazier from June
> 1997:
>
> We sure don't!" The last word is spoken with a
> rising inflection, as
> if the expression were a positive one ending with
> the word "do".
> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jun/frazier.htm
>
> (Despite the reference to "a rising inflection", I
> suspect this is
> the very same intonation you refer to as a "high
> falling contour".)
> Frazier refers to the "Sure Don't Bakery" and more
> generally to the
> 'border into "sure don't" America'.
>
>
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