Quote:
You will hear "I've never seen the like" or "have you seen the like?", though, especially in parts of the South.
Yet another Southern Gaelicism, of which there are a number, probably derived from the speech of Scots-Gaelic immigrants, who were sometimes only a century or so away from Gaelic speaking ancestors, and also possibly from the Scots dialects spoken by Scottish slavers who brought slaves to South Carolina in the early days, and who also brought in pidgin Portuguese words like Negro and pickaninny, and may have introduced words like Mammy (mamaí).
Some other examples:
"There's not [or: There ain't] but [just/jes] two" and "I have to carry my date home"
and a strong tendency for Deep South Southerners to place stress on the first syllable of a word, as in: [At]LAN-uh, N[ew]OR-luhns, SO[u]TH Ca'lahna, NO[r]TH Ca'lahna, BUR-lin (Berlin, Georgia), AY-rab (Arab, Alabama), and words like AH-dee[uh] (=idea) and PO-lees (police).