Job Discussion Forums

[Frater]

No, I'm not confused about this ...
I said 'echo question', not 'question tag'.

An echo question in Standard English is, for example,
'I've been waiting here for hours', 'Have you?'
or
'I would never do such a thing!', 'Wouldn't you?'
or
'I went to the new gym last night', 'Did you?'

In some parts of London (or among certain sections of its population), all of these tricky variants are replaced by 'is it?'

I don't know where it comes from but I first heard it from a Bangladeshi teenager from the East End. The use is now quite common - or even very common, as some might say.

And you can't use 'innit?' as an echo question. Try rereading the dialogue in my original post replacing the 'is it?' of Speaker B, with 'innit?'. It doesn't work.

'Frater' (a Londoner)

[once again]

When just out of the UK around 10 years ago I thought I didn't have a strong regional accent..Oh dear was I wrong. I was taught proper pronunciation by two Danish girls while travelling in Australia. It became clear that "womba" actually had a T on the end and should be pronunced in just such a way. I tried to modify my accent further when after one of my first teaching classes the small kids went out to their parents and showed them pictures of "buzzes". There parents looked utterly confused untill the little tikes held up pictures of busses. On the other foot, I had a friend come out to visit me in Hong Kong who kept referring to the currency as, for example, "It cost 20 dollar". Finally I asked why he was missing the "s" off the end of the word and his reply was "I thought that was what it was called, as that is how your wife says it". ( My wife is a non native english speaking Chinese lady) We live and learn..we live and learn...