The American Language

[An t-Ileach]

I remember reading excerpts from a book discussing the similarities between Elizabethan English and the US Southern Dialect. They author was positing that it was actually part of an astounding linguistic conservatism in which aspects of Elizabethan English have simply persisted in the American South while being long since left behind in other parts of the English speaking world. Among the examples given was the use of the double negative. Apparently, using double negatives was a particular favorite of Queen Elizabeth I herself!...

I must have read the same book. There are clear survivals in AE from Tudor times, especially noticeable in past participles such as "gotten" (BE uses "got") and (strong preferred to weak - weakening the pps is said to be a 'progressive' (is that the right opposite to 'conservative'?) trend) "dove" (BE - "dived"). I think the spelling system is less important, although I don't understand the rationale behind the AE dropping of 'u' (it's used everywhere else in the English-speaking world - except by chavs who don't seem to be able to spell consistently in any sort of system). And a modern Webster's dictionary gives the BE forms as well anyway.