Heard on "1000 Ways to Die":

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Jan 26, 2012, at 10:34 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 1:10 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
>> AmE PST for PSP has been voluminously commented on, from Mencken on (and surely before).
>
> [R&B example] For its time, this was the equivalent of the instance from last night:
> Well, of course, that's the way we talk, but there's no point in going
> *public" with it! Why wasn't that "corrected"? This is not a blues
> song!
>
> As far as Mencken et al., their attitude was entirely proper!

The literature on PST for PSP merely describes the phenomenon as a widespread AmE non-standardism, and doesn't deplore it.
>
> The white man, as the natural custodian of the language, must hold
> himself to a higher standard!

PST for PSP is *very very* far from being an exclusively black thing.  your sarcasm is misplaced.

arnold


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

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