Re: "ain't do nothing"

jcowan@REUTERSHEALTH.COM wrote:

>Ray Brown scripsit:
>
>
>
>>That's precisely why I pointed out that *"ain't do nothing" does not occur
>>in any variety of English. I'm delineating actual usage - it ain't used.
>>
>>
>
>I missed this before.  It actually is used in all but the highest
>registers of AAVE, and has roughly the sense of Standard English
>"haven't done anything".  This can cause considerable confusion between
>AAVE-speakers and other anglophones, as in the sentence "They ain't
>like that", which means "They aren't like that" in most dialects but
>"They don't like that" in AAVE.
>
>
Does AAVE really exist as a unitary dialect?  I mean, I would expect it
shows a large degree of geographical variation, perhaps larger than
'higher' register dialects.  I don't know anything about the subject,
but can such characteristics really be generalised like that?

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