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hitormist
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23 Mar 2008, 10:36 am

iamnotaparakeet wrote:
I've never seen where're or who're, but the spellchecker says they're ok.

Also,

It's can mean "it has", "it was", or "it is".

(S)he'll can mean "(s)he will" or "(s)he shall".

Most of the shortening is for ease of phonetic use.


Being pedantic "it's" does not mean "it is", as that is "its" (no apostrophe) :D



Cameo
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28 Mar 2008, 10:10 pm

I say there're, these're, and which're all the time... the more I listen to myself speak, the more I can tell I'm from Wisconsin. lol



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28 Mar 2008, 10:23 pm

We haven't even touched on how you Yanks torture the language we invented ....

(Two peoples, separated by a common language.)


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29 Mar 2008, 12:52 pm

Sora wrote:

but not:

there're ?
these're ?
which're ?

Seriously, why? With we're/you're I can understand the argument of 'easier pronunciation by drop of vowel' but with the others...


We say all of the above here in the Ol' South (southeastern U.S.)
Pronounced 'Therer,' 'Theezer' and 'Whicher.'

In addition, we say:

Y'all [Y'all come back now,ya hear?]
All o' y'all [All o' y'all need to say this'n right]
Y'allses [That ain't ours, it's y'allses]
You'uns [You'uns is the guilty 'uns]


PS - one never calls a Southerner a 'Yank' or 'Yankee' - it's highly frowned upon to be a Yankee down here...


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Cameo
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29 Mar 2008, 1:52 pm

Hey, now. I can't help my birthplace... I'm taking my dairy cow and leaving :cry:



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30 Mar 2008, 12:08 am

How about this one, rainstorm5?

From a Southerner in the USA. He told me "What you got here is two ticks and no dog."

I love American idiom ...


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30 Mar 2008, 12:41 am

though the tough cough and hiccough plough him through...;)

dontcha love English?...;)



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30 Mar 2008, 1:04 am

Prof_Pretorius wrote:
We haven't even touched on how you Yanks torture the language we invented ....

(Two peoples, separated by a common language.)


Modern British English speakers didn't "invent" the language... they just "tortured" Middle English, before there even was such a thing as a "Yank." And the Middle English speakers just tortured Anglo Saxon before that. That's the evolution of language, a continuing process of mutilation.

You can't rightly expect us to change the way we speak or spell any more than someone else could expect you to speak in Chaucer's tongue.



Ahaseurus2000
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30 Mar 2008, 1:48 am

when finished building a structure, we still call it a "building" - and not a "built".

If we historically called it a Built instead, it wouldn't sound strange to call it that!


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Rainstorm5
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30 Mar 2008, 3:56 pm

Prof_Pretorius wrote:
How about this one, rainstorm5?

From a Southerner in the USA. He told me "What you got here is two ticks and no dog."

I love American idiom ...


That's a new one, but it's funny. A few more I've heard lately are:

- "He must sort bobcats for a living." [Describing someone who looks grumpy]

- "He's busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kickin' contest."

If someone inquires into someone else's general health, you might hear:

- "As long as there ain't six feet o' dirt 'tween me and the world, I'm doin' fine."

- "I've got my good days 'n my bad days, and fair to middlin' betwixt 'em."

After being asked how someone's wayward children are doing these days:

- "Them young'uns is sneakier than a snake in socks and ain't nary'n of 'em e'er been caught.'


And my all-time favorite: "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."


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