double negation

Hello, friends.

I've just read a story in which the main character is speaking in which it seems to be a somewhat vernacular language, with very different features from the English we ussualy learn as students. One of these carachteristics is the use of a double negation (as we do in Spanish, by the way). I´m giving you several examples:

You can see for yourself that this ain't no New York
She couldn't never understand Jim.
they ain't no subject she can't talk on
City and besides that, the most of the boys works all day and don't have no leisure to drop in here and get themselves prettied up.

I have the feeling of having heard this before (in films, tv, books, etc.), but I can't figure out whose language it is. I´d like to know if it's more AE than BE and everything you can tell me about it (if it's a current English or not, if it belongs to a particular social class or ethnic group, etc.)

The story is Haircut, by Ring Lardner, and is settled in a small town near Carterville.

Thank you very much. Would you mind correcting my English and pointing out my mistakes. Mr Bones.

Hola Mr. Bones.

I've just read a story in which the main character is speaking in which it what seems to be a somewhat vernacular language, with very different features from the English we ussualy learn as students. One of these carachteristics characteristics is the use of a double negativeon (as we do in Spanish, by the way). I´m giving you several examples:

You can see for yourself that this ain't no New York
She couldn't never understand Jim.
they ain't no subject she can't talk on
City and besides that, the most of the boys works all day and don't have no leisure to drop in here and get themselves prettied up.

I have the feeling of having heard this before (in films, tv, books, etc.), but I can't figure out whose language it is. I´d like to know if it's more AE than BE and everything you can tell me about it (if it's a current English or not, if it belongs to a particular social class or ethnic group, etc.)

The story is Haircut, by Ring Lardner, and is settled in a small town near Carterville.

Thank you very much. Would you mind correcting my English and pointing out my mistakes. Mr Bones.

It's certainly very AE. It may also be BE. I leave that to the BE speakers to tell you. It sounds like the speech of people with little formal education--Ring Lardner was very good at capturing the cadence, vocabulary and style of such people.
Double negatives are common in the AE equivalent of barriobajero, or lower class speech. The story may have been set in the 1920s or earlier, but the same speech can be heard today, both in cities and in rural places.

Un saludo,
Cuchu

Thak you very much for the information and for your corrections, Cuchu. You're vey helpful. Mr Bones.

Hello to all:
Yes, as you can see, I'm not a native AE or BE speaker, but if you don't mind, I would like to give it a shot since I think I've read/heard this kind of language a lot.

Mr Bones said:

You can see for yourself that this ain't no New York
She couldn't never understand Jim.
they ain't no subject she can't talk on
City and besides that, the most of the boys works all day and don't have no leisure to drop in here and get themselves prettied up.

You can see for yourself that this is nothing like New york( this is not New York/this is too different from New York. )

She could have never understood Jim. ( she's never going to understand Jim)

They are not the subject that she's not allowed to talk about.( she can talk about them as she wishes)

City and besides that, the most of the boys works all day and they don't have the leisure time to drop in here and dress themselves up.( most of the boys are too occupied in their works to pay any attention to their apperance)

I agree with everything that's posted by Cuchuflete above. But I guess you would probably prefer to wait for posts from native speakers👁 Smile :)

This appears in BE as well - and is commonly used by writers, including Dickens, to indicate a less-well-eddicated speaker.

It is also commonly used by less-well-eddicated speakers.

[Panj beats a hasty retreat to hide behind a four-inch solid oak table-top.]

Tends to be used among younger society as a type of covert prestige, so as to differentiate themselves from adults. Slang is another way of distancing themselves from older generations. I often hear this type of slang within my college, students are around 16-19 there.