The use of the subjunctive in country songs

Johnny Cash's version of "If I Were a Carpenter."

Butch Hancock - "If You Were a Bluebird"
Almost the whole song is subjunctive.

I'm not sure where k.d. lang sits in relation to country these days, but she also has a song called "If I Were You."

Roger Miller - "Reincarnation" ("If I was a bird and you was a fish" etc.)

Shelby Lynne - "If I Were Smart"

Kasey Chambers - "If I Were You" (the whole thing)

"If I was a bird" is not the subjunctive (though it should be).

This reminds me that I always wanted to start a thread about the linguistic mystery contained in "If the river was whiskey, I was a diving duck."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't was be the subjunctive, as well as being the past tense? Not that this explains the second was right there.

"If I Were A Carpenter"...the only version that comes to mind is Swanee's, but I'm sure there are other more well-known version of this standard.

'Was' is indicative, not subjunctive. I think.

Oh crap. You said Country songs, didn't you Frank. Double dumbass on me.

Though "was" is not the proper word, it still functions as the subjunctive; it's just a colloquial slip.

Perhaps this thread would be more suitably titled "PROPER use of the subjunctive on country songs."

No, I'd say the "was" makes it not function as the subjunctive (at least grammatically), since it's the "were" that indicates that you're in the subjunctive mood, whereas "was" doesn't differentiate between the subjunctive and the nonsubjunctive.

Obviously, someone could say "So I go to the store" and you can understand from the context that he means he went to the store, but still, he's gramatically in the present tense. Ditto with the subjunctive: If you're not in it, you're not in it.

(There may be ways that I don't know about in nonstandard English to differentiate the subjunctive from the nonsubjunctive, but saying "was" for each wouldn't do it.)

Actually, I'm having second thoughts. My dictionary says the subjunctive designates "a verb form or set of forms used in English to express a contingent or hypothetical action." Now, "If I am magical, I will flap my arms and fly" expresses a contingent or hypothetical action by its content, but not by its verb form. The rule for putting it in the subjunctive is both to switch to the past tense and to pair the singular pronoun with the plural verb; but k/l is suggesting (I think) that just going to the past tense can function as the subjunctive too (albeit not being proper grammar), since it is a switch from present to past, hence at least is enough of a switch. (I'll have to email my brother; he'll know.)

Even not hearing back from my brother, I've decided that k/l is right and I was wrong. Here's my reasoning expressed a little more clearly in this post than in the last:

"If I were a bird, I would fly" is in the subjunctive.

"If I am a bird, I will fly," is not, since the subjunctive requires a switch in verb form to express a contingent or hypothetical action. (The "if" of course also expresses the action's hypothetical or contingent nature, but to be the subjunctive, the verb form also has to do the expressing.)

All right, what about "If I was a bird, I would fly"? This is not proper English, but is it the subjunctive nonetheless? Is the switch to past tense, even without switching the verb from singular to plural, enough of a switch to count as the subjunctive?

Or, for that matter, might some nonstandard dialects have "they was happy" as a legitimate plural form of "to be" in the past tense? If so, then "If I was a bird, I would fly" would be in the plural, just as the "had" in "If I had wings, I would fly," could be considered the plural form of a verb that just happens to have the same singular and plural form. Right? So, "If I was a bird, I would fly" would be in the subjunctive, albeit in nonstandard English.

(And of course speakers of English do sometimes switch from standard to nonstandard in midsentence, e.g., the frequent and conscious use of the double negative by people who otherwise are speaking standard English.)

In any event, if we're to count "If I was a bird," then being in the subjunctive would be no big deal for country music, hence this thread would be pointless. So let's amend the thread as Curtis suggested, to the PROPER use of the subjunctive in country songs.

(And one reason for the thread is that country deliberately tries not to sound too "proper," too northern, too middle-class.)

You also might want to search for clauses beginning with "whom" in country music. E.g., "Whom do you love?" ("Whom" at the end of a clause, especially following a preposition, would be less of a surprise.)

"if you love somebody enough, you'd follow wherever they go... that's how i got to memphis."

tom t. hall often sets elaborate syntax beside folksy phrases for effective (and funny) contrast.

Chris Knight has a nice little song called "If I Were You" (different than the Kasey Chambers one) from the point of view of a mugger. I love how the tone shifts even as the tense stays the same (although by the end I guess the whole thing turns a lot less hypothetical and contingent):

If I were you, then I would gladly
loan to me a dollar or two
So I could eat, and maybe get
Just one good night of sleep
But I'm not, and I'm stranded
Like a castaway in this town
And you seem so unwilling
To help a fellow when he's down
If I were you, that's what I'd do

If I were you, I wouldn't be out on these streets
The whole night through
Yeah, I'd have a job and a pretty wife
That I could come home to
But I don't, and I have twenty cents
Left to my name
And you're the only one left here
That I have to blame
If I were you, That's what I'd do

Sir, it's not like me to take from you
Things I haven't earned
I wish I could go back
And heed the lessons I have learned

But I can't, so you'll gladly
Put your money in this sack
Yes Sir, this thing is loaded
And I have the hammer back
If I were you, that's what I'd do
If I were you, that's what to do