[Ads-l] "Oh, Brother, _Were_ Art Thou"

[Laurence Horn]

> On Nov 3, 2015, at 12:29 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> From "Sleepy Hollow" (Fox-TV) last month:
> 
> American Revolution-Themed Restaurant Host:  "Welcome to Ye Olde Colonial
> Times! Have thou dinest with us before?"
> 
> Ichabod Crane: "Why are you talking like that?"
> 
> Host: "It be how we spoketh in days of yore."
> 
> Ichabod Crane: "If you were wounded in the head, perhaps!"
> 
> JL
> 

Precisely.

LH

> On Tue, Nov 3, 2015 at 9:51 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: "Oh, Brother, _Were_ Art Thou"
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>>> On Nov 3, 2015, at 3:07 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> =20
>>> This instance of "where" misspelled as "were" in a Facebook comment is =
>> only
>>> one of many instances that I've seen of the loss of the _h_ from =
>> _where_ in
>>> writing as well as in pronunciation, though "were" isn't as common as
>>> "ware" or "wear," needless to say.
>> 
>> Maybe some copular assimilation involved? =20
>> 
>> I actually bristle more at the overgeneralization of -eth and -est verb =
>> endings ("My cup runnethed over", "Pride goest before a fall", etc.).  =
>> I'm sure y'all have your own examples.
>> 
>> 
>> LH=
>> 
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>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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