Dyslexia and English Orthography was "surprise"

[Mark Mandel]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 7:52 PM, Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> Well, I appreciate that explanation.
>
> So let me move on to a question that I think this list is supposed to
> address.  If not, then just slam-dunk me.
>
> In North Carolina, where I live, and particularly in the eastern part, there
> is a tendency to use "won't" to mean "was not" or "were not".
> Ex:  Q: "Who ate that last piece of pie?"
>       A: "It won't me".
>
> Does this practice exist anywhere else?  I have lived in and travelled thru
> much of the South, and don't recall hearing it anywhere else.
>
> Bill Palmer

I can't reply knowledgeably, but let me assure you that in terms of
appropriateness your question IS a slam-dunk.

Is this the pronunciation I've seen written as "warn't" in the same
sort of context? "about 198,000" rgh ("raw Google hits") for "warn't".
The first page or so shows a few ringers, but most of them look real,
such as

 - it warn't always like this [blog title]
 - What does 'there warn't much sand in my craw' mean?
 - Day 140: "We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all.
Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You
feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft."
 - And when it come to character, warn't it Compeyson as had been to
the school, and warn't it his schoolfellows as was in this position
and in that...

Those last two are from Twain (Huckleberry Finn) and Dickens! (_Great
Expectations_, in Google Book Search, http://tinyurl.com/d5qndc)

Mark A. Mandel

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