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Comment by jobigoud | Hacker News Reader

Off topic but why is there a blatant conjugation mistake in the title of the article? Is this common? Is it some other cultural reference I'm not aware of? Is it AAVE? (I'm not a native English speaker).

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It is intended as a cultural and literary reference. As an american english speaker I would say it's a play on the phrase "That dog don't hunt" meaning something will not work. I would consider this to be a 'country' saying not AAVE but I'm not a linguist. More broadly the title mirrors a southern american dialect structure of "[This|that] X don't Y". The article calls it a "Huck Finn style adventure" Huck Finn being the protagonist of famous Mark Twain novels that are famously written with dialogue in AAVE and other southern American dialect.

Maybe also a "Twain-version" of the title of Farley Mowat's novel The Boat Who Wouldn't Float?

I think in this specific case, it was written this way both to allude to the slanginess of Huck Finn, and because it sounds good due to "boat don't float" rhyming. To me, it has a similar pleasant-sounding impact as alliteration.

It's a southern US dialect. Yes, it's common in this region for spoken language, but it's uncommon to have it be published (it's almost always an attempt to set the piece as a view into lower class, southern lifestyles).

Similar for words like "ain't" and "y'all".

Probably more of a general Southern dialect thing than AAVE, but definitely intentional either way. Maybe a reference to Huckleberry Finn but I'm not well-read enough to know.

I it sounds more pleasant (IMO) to say "this boat don't float" than "this boat doesn't float".

I could easily see someone in the US saying "this boat don't float", and believing they were being witty, or even just thinking it was the right way to say it.

As a native Texan with a love of language and linguistics, I'm really enjoying all the comments in response to your question. Just so you know, there are lots of search results for that phrase outside of that article, including one as far away as Australia:

2007 financial outlook - "The Krispy Creme (KKD) Donut Boat Don't Float" https://247wallst.com/investing/2007/06/04/the_krispy_crem/

Picture of a boat that actually doesn't float: https://www.deviantart.com/theuniphotoghrpher/art/This-Boat-...

Houseboat for rent: https://www.travelocity.com/Hartwell-Hotels-This-Boat-Dont-F...

Church sermon title: https://journeyorl.podbean.com/e/when-your-boat-dont-float/

Poem title: https://inprinthouston.org/event/first-fridays-presents-rebe...

2002 article about a Ford/Mercury car: https://www.deseret.com/2002/6/11/19659250/marauder-muscle-c...

Fishing forum: https://www.fishexplorer.com/co/fxrforum.asp?action=det&pid=...

Boating forum: https://forums.sailboatowners.com/threads/new-to-the-forum.1...

Australian website asking "What happens if your boat don’t float?" https://www.aussiemob.com/beer-can-regatta/

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