"Is it" appended to questions

[Benjamin Zimmer]

As I read Trudgill's post, the origin of London-style "innit" is
independent of the development of other invariant tags in "areas where
English has a history of being learnt as a second language," including
Wales.


On 5/14/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> Does the origin "in London-based Caribbean-influenced varieties" of
> English English antedate the 1940s "How Green Was My Valley" and "The
> Corn is Green"?  The only two movies set in Wales I can remember at
> the moment, and which I now intend to rent, view, and listen to for
> "is/isn't it?".
>
> At 5/14/2007 09:32 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> >See also Peter Trudgill's ADS-L post in a Sep. 2003 thread on "innit":
> >
> >-----
> >http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0309b&L=ads-l&P=8735
> >There is an enormous body of literature on the invariant tag innit in
> >English English, The origin appears to be in London-based
> >Caribbean-influenced varieties, where it seems to have served
> >originally as a 'translation' of Caribbean English Creole 'no?".
> >It is worth noticing that such invariant tags are very common in
> >areas where English has a history of being learnt as a second
> >language e.g Welsh English invariant "isn't it?"; broad South African
> >English "is it?"; West African English "is it?", Indian English
> >"isn't it?"; Singaporean English "isn't it?/ is it?"
> >[etc.]
>

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