Was that he was guilty obvious?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Grammatical but clumsy. If I'd written it, I'd revise it.

JL

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 10:01 AM, Randy Alexander
<strangeguitars at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Subject:      Was that he was guilty obvious?
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>
> "Was that he was guilty obvious?"
>
> Do you find the above sentence grammatical or ungrammatical?  In other
> words, in your dialect (or idiolect), can you form an interrogative by
> inverting a subordinate content clause with an auxiliary?
>
> I find it grammatical, but I know that some find it ungrammatical.  I'm
> trying to see if there is a detectable dialectical split over this pattern.
>
> --
> Randy Alexander
> Xiamen, China
> Blogs:
> Manchu studies: http://www.sinoglot.com/manchu
> Chinese characters: http://www.sinoglot.com/yuwen
> Language in China (group blog): http://www.sinoglot.com/blog
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