Re: Genitive relationships (WAS: Construct States)

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Brian Betty wrote:
> > It is also archaic in some phonological ways, too: I understand the
> > original form the the verb "to ask" is something like "axan" (to 'aks');
> > Black English has maintained the older form while standard English dialects
> > have the nouveau "ask."
>
> Not quite.  The original form was "askan", but many dialects of Old
> English contained "aksan", and that dialectal variant either survived
> into Black English, or was recreated (I've heard a theory that it was
> because of phonological restrictions in African languages, I suspect
> that both factors played a role)
Well, I have a feeling that in this particular instance, it has a lot more to
do with the form having been brought over from nonstandard English
dialects.  Not that the Out-of-Africa theory doesn't hold any influence,
I just think that it has more to do with the former than the latter. There
are also white Southern dialects that use the form.


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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
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