Why do southern evangelical Christians in American churches say "how that" instead of how?

Question

Why do evangelical Christians in American churches say "how that" instead of how?

Ex. 1:

Let me tell you a story about Billy Beaumont and how that, for our sakes, he joined the war to fight the commies for our freedom.

Ex. 2:

Joey: Pa, why have our pecan trees lost all their leaves?

Pa: Well son, you know how that the woodpeckers will peck all kinds of holes in the trees?

Joey: Yep.

Pa: Well that kills the trees and that's why they ain't got leaves no more.

In my understanding, correct usage of "how that" would be:

Well Joey, I'll you how that happened: woodpeckers killed the trees by putting all kinds of holes in 'em!

I had not heard the former usage in the two examples until I moved from Portland, OR to Alabama. Now I hear it everywhere, especially in the churches, but also just in casual conversation. I was just wanting to understand where that usage originated, what the reason for it is, and how widespread it is.

It's possibly a (larger) relict from something like " ... you know how it is that the woodpeckers will peck all kinds of holes ...". — Edwin Ashworth, Mar 21 '21 at 14:33
This is the that that introduces tensed subordinate clauses. It's become a relative pronoun in relative clauses (the man that they saw), a complementizer with complement clauses (I know that they didn't invite her), and it used to be a complementizer with adverbial clauses, too, as Chaucer used it, and as still occurs in some dialects: We ought to get a bite to eat before that we raised the tent occurs in an Andy Griffith routine ("What it was, was football") in his authentic North Carolina accent. It's considered nonstandard today in adverbial clauses. — John Lawler, Mar 21 '21 at 16:57
The how that introduces a phrase that functions as a noun, as in your second example. Pa: Well son, you know (noun), right? That's a different construction than the first sentence, where the that isn't strictly necessary. Also, I don't hear this as being particular to evangelicals. — FeliniusRex - gone, Mar 22 '21 at 14:00
@Conrado I'm not sure that it is particular/peculiar to evangelicals, only that that's pretty much mostly where I've heard it. — Eric Hepperle - CodeSlayer2010, Mar 27 '21 at 12:35
@JohnLawler It sounds like you are on the right track. Can you create an answer with more examples of the linguistic Chaucer usage? — Eric Hepperle - CodeSlayer2010, Mar 27 '21 at 12:37

Why do southern evangelical Christians in American churches say "how that" instead of how?

0 Answers0