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April 2008

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From:
"Myers, Marshall" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 9 Apr 2008 17:39:39 -0400
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"Had went" is quite common with my students from Appalachia. Another form somewhat similar that I also hear from these same students is "have saw."

In certain situations, my students would choose "done gone" rather than "have went."

Marshall Myers
Eastern Kentucky University

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Spruiell, William C
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 5:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: HAD WENT: ATEG Digest - 7 Apr 2008 to 8 Apr 2008 (#2008-85)

Scott:

"Had went" is a regional dialect form, I suspect -- I had not
encountered it before I moved to Michigan, but I encounter it *very*
frequently here. Of course, "have went" and "has went" are also part of
the local dialect. Since it's so common here, and since Michiganders
tend to believe that whatever they speak *must* by definition be
standard English, I have a certain amount of trouble convincing them
that outside readers will indeed notice it and think it's a big deal.
Not linguistically insecure, your average Michigander.

In Florida, I suspect you'd find it along the southwestern coast, which
has been heavily colonized by Michigan emigrants. Unless things have
changed sharply in the last twenty years (I lived in Florida for
awhile), the northeastern coast tends to be a mixture of Southern
dialects and (at least further south, around Daytona) New Jerseyite. I
still remember trying to figure out what a "garridge" was.

Bill Spruiell

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 3:33 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: HAD WENT: ATEG Digest - 7 Apr 2008 to 8 Apr 2008 (#2008-85)

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------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 8 Apr 2008 16:14:32 -0400
From:    Scott <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: ATEG Digest - 6 Apr 2008 to 7 Apr 2008 (#2008-84)

I must have been lucky teaching.  I've taught all-Caucasian classes in
small
towns in Florida; heavily African-American center-city classes in
Jacksonville, FL; overwhelming Hispanic classes in Los Angeles, I have
not
encountered 'had went' ('done went', yes--but never forms with 'had' + a
past tense that was not identical to a past participle.  The 'done went'
was from a single student, although 'done' as an auxiliary verb was not
uncommon in speech; e.g, 'done gone.'  Nevertheless, no one in my
classes
(high school or junior high) ever wrote using 'done' as an auxiliary or
using 'had' + a past tense.

The only explanation that I can see for the mistakes that you report is
a bad hangover from the 60's when many universities began to teach the
viewpoint that all levels of English usage are of equal value: shades
of Joos!

I have also read about--but never experienced--the snide remarks that
"so
'n' so is acting White when the person criticized is using correct
English.

Scott

(I just got through explaining to a class for the fourth time that "had
went" won't go over well in formal writing), but in the normal course of
things, grammars document the judgments, or give weight to one group's
judgments over those of other groups, rather than institute the
judgments in
the first place (I'm hedging a bit because of Lowth and his ilk).=20

Bill Spruiell
Dept. of English
Central Michigan University

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