"Do any of you notice that type of thing where you live ?"
Yes, Peace. In East London, and spreading out into the county of Essex, it's very common to hear "done" in place of "did" throughout the whole conjugation of the past tense of "to do", e.g. "I done that; he done it; she never done that !" etc.

Likewise with the verb "to be": "Where was you ?". "We was going down the club." "They was wearin their new gear what they got off the market."

Likewise the double negative: "I didn't do nuffink, Miss, I swear !"

I recently moved from just outside Greater London in Essex further north into Essex and closer to the Suffolk border. It's less than an hour's drive further out, but into a totally different linguistic world. Some of the children being brought up here make the East London-type regional "non-grammaticisms", (and with East London vowels !) but a much larger proportion do not.

I suppose the area I now live in is "on the cusp" : some are people whose families moved out from the East End to Essex, but still close to London, a couple of generations ago, and have now moved further out again, still retaining at least a little of the East London accent, alongside others who come from generations who have lived in this area, and have quite a marked rural "burr". It makes for a very interesting mix of overheard accents in the town.

When talking about English regionalisms (accent and grammar), dare I mention the subject of Class ? Social class and level of education still play a great part in the presence or absence of these regionalisms in England, probably more so than in any other part of the English-speaking world.

- jeanie