Letter: Innit, n'est-ce pas?

Tuesday 27 May 1997 18:02 EDT

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Sir: Linguists will not be surprised by the emergence of "innit" (letter, 26 May), since the full form "isn't it?" corresponds exactly to "n'est-ce pas?" in French.

It stands, of course, for "isn't it true?", which in turn is shortened to "not true?" in some languages, for example German ("nicht wahr?") and Russian ("ne pravda li?").

ANTHONY WERNER

London SW5

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