How to understand "Son don't you ever tell no lie, even if the truth Burns"

Question

don't you ever tell no lie = don't you ever tell a lie or don't you ever tell the truth????

Stormy · Accepted Answer

The first: Don't you ever tell a lie!

It's not grammatical, so I can understand the confusion.

Enoon · Answer

I believe that "don't you ever tell no lie" is not a question where you found it. It is a command. Its grammar is different from the usual American English grammar in two ways.

It uses a "double negative", which is a feature of the colloquial English of the American rural South, to name one dialect where it is common. The double negative is nowadays considered to be a style flaw or a mistake, but it was once the norm. Shakespeare used it all the time, and in many languages it is the normal way of expressing increased negativeness.

It also includes the subject "you" in an imperative sentence, for emphasis. 'Don't you do that" is a stronger command than "Don't do that", and this, too, is more common in backwoods dialect. The subject is normally left unstated in such sentences today; what was once expressed as "Sit ye down" is now simply "Sit down."

How to understand "Son don't you ever tell no lie, even if the truth Burns"

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