[Gllug] Monthly GLLUG grammar report

[Dylan]

On Tuesday 26 November 2002 11:59, Leslie Till wrote:
> Alain Williams wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 09:55:54AM -0000, Daniel Andersson wrote:
> >>i mean, a lot of people in essex say "innit" after every sentence they
> >> say "are you going into town, INNIT?", which _I_ think shows a lack of
> >> confidence and intelligence
> >
> > Just the Essex (note capitalisation - since we are being pedantic)
> > localisation of the "y'know" that you hear elsewhere -- equally grating
> > after the 20th incantation.
>
> I thought that Innit was imported from the Caribbean, but I could be wrong.

You're absolutely right! The ancestral African languages which fed the 
formation of the Caribbean Pigins and Creoles have sentence-final question 
particles, equivalent to our echo questions:

He's going to the pub, is (-n't) he?

"Innit" is a generalization over all possible echo questions, and is here to 
stay, sorry...

Dylan

-- 
"Sweet moderation
Heart of this nation
Desert us not, we are
Between the wars"

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