Re: My version

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> > > http://www.bartleby.com/61/1/A0450100.html
> > >
> > > Usage note :
> > >
> > > In many dialects [I add : of American English that is to say],
> > > people use as in place of that in sentences like <We are not
> > > sure as we want to go> or <It's not certain as he left>. This
> > > construction is not sufficiently well established to be used
> > > in writing.
> >
> > Along with other constructions exemplified in the same
> > dictionary entry (<Them as thinks they can whup me jest come
> > ahead> and <The car what hit him never stopped>), I wonder, and
> > ask the connoisseurs of American English on the List, if this
> > type of constructions isn't simply the product of an ignorance
> > of English grammar. Are the above constructions used by all
> > social groups in a geographical area, or are they the
> > prerogative of the uneducated ones? Because my notion of
> > a 'dialect' is that it can be spoken by all the members of the
> > social fabric, including the educated ones (as is the case with
> > Italian dialects).
>
> But not the uneducated ones, who don't know the proper grammar?
> That was a surprise. Isn't Romance the product of people who didn't
> know the proper Latin grammar?

I can't understand your objection, Torsten. Did I write that dialecs
are spoken by educated people only? What I wanted to stress is that,
if the varieties of US English the above slang expressions belong in
are only used by uneducated people, but yet are never used by the
educated people, this fact alone would indicate that those varieties
of US English are not 'true' dialects because a 'true' dialect is
normally spoken by people from all walks of life in a given
geographical area. At least, this is the case with all old dialects
in Italy (and, I think, everywhere in Europe). If this condition
isn't satisfied, we should speak of a 'sociolect', not of a
true 'dialect'.

However, in case you have not noticed it, Andrew has already given
an interesting reply to the post of mine you are replying to, which
is archived at

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/63213

Regards,
Francesco