Another case of negative = positive?

[Wilson Gray]

I was chatting with a Texas relative and mentioned to him that he
might want to read a particular book. He replied:

a) "I'll see whether I _can't_ [keint] find it down here."

Of course, he meant:

b) "I'll see whether I _can_ [kin] find it down here."

Except that that's not how people say it Down Home.

-Wilson
--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org