Don’t be saying that outside this room,” O’Kelly said sharply and automatically. Cassie moved, something like a shrug, and went back to her drawing
To judge by his name and his wording, O'Kelly is Irish, and that use of the progressive is heard as an Irishism. You also hear it in other forms of English, and it is understood in the US (by me, anyway, and I suspect most) as emphatic. "
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To judge by his name and his wording, O'Kelly is Irish, and that use of the progressive is heard as an Irishism. You also hear it in other forms of English, and it is understood in the US (by me, anyway, and I suspect most) as emphatic. You even hear the tacit "you" in it, "Don't you be saying that …."