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Re: Integrating snippets from other languages into your L1

From:Dana Nutter <sasxsek@...>
Date:Wednesday, July 19, 2006, 16:57
li [Ph.D.] mi tulis la

> > I've lived in Tennessee for over 6 years now and have > > done pretty well in resisting the local speech habits. I > > do tend to say things like "it's not" rather than "it isn't" > > but have yet to say anything like "knowed", "blowed" > > or "yunz". > > > Which brings up a related usage. The negative of "let's" > is "let's not" in all the dialects of English that I'm familiar > with. But in _Atlas Shrugged_, the characters always > use "don't let's," which makes sense, but sounds awkward > to me. > > "Let's not fight about it." vs. "Don't let's fight about it."
The tendency here seems to be to stress "not." You'll hear "I've not ...", "he's not ..." rather than "I haven't ..." or "he hasn't ..." It did sound a bit strange at first but now I'm somewhat adjusted to it.