Allison, You sound like a native Southerner. I first heard "might could" from the realtor we were working with in Atlanta in 1974 to find a house. I was astonished to hear what I had only read about in my linguistics training. It's called a double modal. One also hears "might should" and "might should oughta". I've never heard any of these forms negated, with a not after the first modal. The double modal construction is found in Middle English as well, so it's not particularly new. It's just isolated to a few varieties of spoken English. Herb -----Original Message----- From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Allison Rose Sent: Wed 7/5/2006 7:29 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: "useta could" I might could help you if I knew anything about linguistics, which I unfortunately don't. I've used "might could" my whole life and never thought twice about it until I took a college-level grammar course. "Whole nother" is also a regular staple of my vocabulary diet; so is "y'all," which I continue to use despite the weird looks I get from people sometimes. Figured I'd contribute. - Allison To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/