"Is it" appended to questions

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 5/12/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> A friend wrote me in email
>
> >I hadn't heard anything about the story.  However, I assume that you
> >sympathize with him even though you may be embarrassed that he lives
> >in Arlington and went to Harvard, is it?
>
> What regions/dialects is such an "is it" regional to?  Welsh, for one?

South African English is known to have that tag question. See:

http://www.askoxford.com/globalenglish/types/


--Ben Zimmer

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