Heard on The Doctors: "Lookit, youse

[Wilson Gray]

A forty-ish, white, emergency-room doctor at a Saint Louis hospital
who describes himself as having been "born and raised in Saint Louis"
says "_Lookit, youse!_ After my wife caught on that I don't live in
real time, she gave me this cell for me to call her and say when I was
*really* going to be home."

At the time that we moved to StL, ca. 1941-42, the use of _Lookit!_ in
place of _Look!_, _youse_ in place of _you_ or _y'all_, and _never
V-ed_ in place of _didn't V_ were the locutions that I found strangest
about the local white dialect.

It's interesting - to me - that the first two are still alive. (I've
since discovered that the use of _never V-ed_ instead of _didn't V_ -
or _*ain't* V(-ed)_, as appears to be more common, nowadays - is
general among white speakers.)

--
-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

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