Hi, I'm from SE Mass. down near Providence. For a paper, I'm writing about the phrase "So don't I" meaning the same as "So do I". Do any of you say this phrase? Where are you from? It seems like more of a SE Mass. thing than Boston; several Boston people I've asked have never heard this used before.
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By LaDivina - Dec 6, 2003, 8:46 PM Post #2 of 44 [In reply to]
My girlfriend, a Somerville native, says it all the time. Freedom of speech is wonderful - right up there with the freedom not to listen.
By Sparky - Dec 6, 2003, 8:58 PM Post #3 of 44 [In reply to]
So don't I. Well I did until High School, I think it's a South Shore thing. I grew up in Norwell near Scituate, Hanover, Rockland. I was cured by an old Italian, who IMO speak the best "English" as a group overall in this area. I'm thinking that perhaps in Olde English questions were phrased like "Do you not think that......" which later got contracted to "Don't you think" (another popular phrase)which "So don't I" was a natural though gramatically incorrect reply. Interestingly enough many of the descendants of the Mayflower drifted through SE Mass to eventually Providence, there's a clear emigration path southwestly. Boston & further north was settled by the Puritans rather than the Pilgrims. Perhaps if you visit the Roger Williams Memorial in Providence the ranger there could help out. About two years ago he had a 17th century reanactment team there and one of the members was a dialect expert in language from that period. Also the staff at Plimouth Plantations speak in that tongue (Western English almost Welsh). Just a theory.
By adamg - Dec 6, 2003, 11:22 PM Post #4 of 44 [In reply to]
That's the interesting thing about Boston English - it can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. I've heard it here in Roslindale and West Roxbury.
By Dave - Dec 6, 2003, 11:39 PM Post #5 of 44 [In reply to]
Larry Johnson, of WEEI's Mustard & Johnson and sports cartoonist for the Globe and ESPN.com, says it quite a bit. I grew up in Dedham and kids used to say it in the 60's & 70s.
I grew up in Holliston (30 mins west of Boston) saying both "so don't I" and "so do I."
I grew up in Holliston too, and we also said it.
By Fred Sennott - Dec 7, 2003, 2:31 PM Post #8 of 44 [In reply to]
Me to.I was born in Cambridge and have lived in Arlington since age 13,for most of the time. Trust in God and sin not.Don't blame me I'm like Sparky I voted for Sarah to.
By LaDivina - Dec 7, 2003, 8:13 PM Post #9 of 44 [In reply to]
So don't I.
LOL I knew someone would say that. It was just a matter of who. :) Freedom of speech is wonderful - right up there with the freedom not to listen.
People in Charlestown say it
Oh my, the intrigue is killing me.
I lived in Mudville...you?
I miss the mayor's famous annual mudville block parties...good times. I lived in East H. down past the middle/elem. schools. Class o '96 here. You grad or underg. at Brandeis?
We lived across the street from the mayor...he just put in a new statue to Casey at the Bat..it's HUGE, right in his front yard...My parents and 5 other neighbors invented the block party thing there..they called themselevs (of course) the Mudville 7...I had to work the keg at the first few parties...I was about 12 then... I work at Brandeis... " "This has always been Mudville," said Joane Hulbert, a resident of Holliston, Mass., part of which has been known as Mudville since at least 1856. "You can drive into Holliston and ask for directions to Mudville, and everyone will be able to tell you how to get here. You can stop at a sandwich shop downtown and order `The Mudville.'" http://www.avpress.com/n/j/01/jcasey.hts
I am originally from northeastern NY (Plattsburgh), and have never used "so don't I", even though I frequently heard it. It has struck me over the years that people of French extraction are more likely to. I guess this makes sense in that one of the commonest French phrases begs for confirmation with a negative "n'est pas". Good luck with your paper.
I grew up in NYC, where we definitely don't say it. But I lived in Boston for 10 years. I knew people from Weymouth, Waltham, and Swampscot who said it. (It took me a couple of years to figure out what the &*%$! they were talking about).
Hate to burst any balloons, but we say it in Rhode island too! or rather, "so don't we!"
I live in Portland, ME, now, where "so don't I" is NEVER heard. But I grew up in Worcester, MA, and heard it there going back to at least the late 1950s.
I grew up in Holbrook and I will admidt to saying "So don't I".
I live in Falmouth just over the Bourne Bridge and most of us said it when we were younger but we have all pretty much grown out of it.
I'm from Hyde Park, and everybody from Hyde Park, Rosindale or Westie says it.
I grew up far west of Mass in Rochester NY. in the 60's and 70's. My parents and many in the neigborhood were immigrants from New Hampshire, Mass, etc. I've often wondered about our 'vernacular' since SNL credited Boston with the rather odd linguistic construct of "so don't I" though I grew up saying it, along with "so aren't I", "so can't I". Also common were "wicked", "book", "stoop", and a myriad of other New England-isms. There also, the name Todd come out to be "Twodd". Camera comes out more like "cyamra" ... similarly Kodak is "kwodyak". We don't leave out "r's" so much as we add them before vowels eg: law office become "lower office". I don't know if it's common to Boston too, but in Rochester, we dropped "t's" as well. Button is "buh'in". If "r's" are dropped, it's NOT usually from the simpler vowel constructions like "-ar", but more in conjunction with "-ear", like in swear becoming "swayuh". Iron sounds more like "I in". R after T's and D's, as in train sounds like "chain". Trip sounds like "chrip". Drip sound like "jip". A really wierd odd one is the mix up of "r" with "v" eg: Grip sounds like "gvip". I'd really like to read your findings. I think language is fascinating. When you're done, you're more than welcome to email it to me. I'd like to know what you find out. My email is klevesque@cfl.rr.com Thanks.
The adding of r's is known as r-insertion or intrusive r. You can read about it on wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrusive_R Turning t into ch and d into j is affrication. These terms may help you if you are looking to learn more about Boston phonology.
By adamg - Mar 5, 2006, 1:55 PM Post #24 of 44 [In reply to]
By AmeriKenArtist - Mar 5, 2006, 4:13 PM Post #25 of 44 [In reply to]
..the phrase "So don't I" meaning the same as "So do I". This reminds me of another colloquial, "same difference!"
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