Suzanne in Tucson, Arizona, says her mother used to say the following to her quickly: Will you? Won’t you? Can’t I coax you? Aw, c’mon! You said you would! You think you might? You promised me! Won’t your mama let ya, huh? There have been many versions of this saying through the years, including the 1968 song “What a Bringdown” by Cream. A similar version was popularized by Anthony Trollope in his book Doctor Thorne (Bookshop|Amazon): Oh, oh! Mary; do you love me? Don’t you love me? Won’t you love me? Say you will. Oh, Mary, dearest Mary, will you? won’t you? Do you? Don’t you? Come now, you have a right to give a fellow an answer.This is part of a complete episode.
The so-called “lifestyle influencer accent” you hear in videos on TikTok and YouTube, where someone speaks with rising tones at the end of sentences and phrases, suggesting that they’re about to say something important, is a form of what linguists...
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s...
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