Paul has the translation right; it's a dialect variant of "She asked me if I had the book."  This is a fairly well-studied feature of some non-standard dialects.  Standard English allows subject-verb inversion only in main clauses, as in "Do you have the book?"  In indirect questions SE uses a subordinating conjunction without inversion.  Non-standard dialects, on the other hand, invert in both main and subordinate clauses.  This, like the prepositions problem, is something students have to master in school if they don't come to school with it and if they are to become competent in Standard English.
 
Herb

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I wouldn't mind it if it were written like this:
 
"She asked me if I had the book." Nor would this bother me: "She asked me, 'Do you have the book?'." But the way your student wrote it is definitely ugly! It's actually incorrect, becuase she couldn't have asked, "Did I have the book?" unless she wasn't sure of what she, herself, had. 
 
I don't know that I'm being clear, here. The problem is between "I" versus "you" in the question "she asked."

Paul E. Doniger



Christine Gray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

        Does this bother anyone on the list:

         

        "She asked me did I have the book?"

         

        Is this construction now accepted as being all right?

         

        Christine in Baltimore 

         

         

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