[Ads-l] Heard: “Everybody knew…”

[Wilson Gray]

“Everybody knew what was an ad”

is a structure cited by Labov, back in the day, as a peculiarity of the
non-standard Negro vernacular, as opposed to the formerly-standard

“Everybody knew what an ad was.”

On Wed, Sep 13, 2017 at 7:19 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I’ve noticed this change in order, too. Not predominantly but commonly. BB
>
> > On 13 Sep 2017, at 13:16, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > ”… what was an ad.”
> >
> >
> > It’s been so long since I’ve heard or read embedded questions with the
> > word-order,
> >
> > “Everybody knew what an ad was”
> >
> > that it must have quietly slipped into obsolescence without anyone
> noticing
> > or caring. Well, since everybody knows that what is an ad, it doesn’t
> > matter.
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-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