contraction impaction

Won't, can't, that'll, I've, we've, you get the idea. Are contractions contributing to the dumbing of English speaking people? Is English the only language where contractions are permitted? Listening to someone speak without the use of contractions undoubtedly adds eloquence and, perhaps, a degree of intelligence. Mind you, I am not speaking of phrases such as y'all, but, rather, real or legal contractions. For example:

A) We will not be able to gather firewood where it cannot be found.
B) We won't be able to gather firewood where it can't be found.

Now, seriously. Which sentence looks/sounds better to you? Or do I need to find something else on which to spend my time?

I believe that the Spanish language only uses two contractions: al (to the) and del (from the), IIRC.

I disagree, though, with the the supposed eloquence of non-contractional speech. After a while, all those syllables tends to get a little wordy.

My peeve is with the pronounciation of the contractions: cain't, idn't, or the ever-dreaded you'unz.

Contractions also occur in French (e.g. "l'amour").

I don't (sorry, "do not") believe that contractions are contributing to the "dumbing" of English speaking people. They've been around for a long time, and only show up more in written works now because people write more informally than they used to. At least these days most people can write!

I think the main cause for the "dumbing" of English speaking people is the large number of dumb people.

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Carpe hoc!

My Southern friends claim that you'unz is grammatically correct, as the plural of "you".

I of course tell them they're insane. Everyone knows that the correct terms is "youse." =B^)

No self-respecting Southerner would ever stoop to using you'unz!!!

That "word" is, at best, a third-generation backwoods West Virginian affectation.

(heh...all you BIG ole West Virginia coalminers know that I'm just funnin' ya, right? right????

Please, everyone knows the plural of "you" is "Y'alls!"

"Y'alls" is some kind of weird southern dialect that may or may not be based in English. Everyone knows that the plural of "You" is "Youse guys."

lol!

Would that make Y'all's and Y'alls' the singular and plural possessives?

My head hurts....

Well, French (that most sophisticated and artistically pure of all languages- ask any Frenchman) is FILLED with contractions. To take the most obvious example, think of the phrase "C'est la vie." Not only is "c'est" a contraction of "that is," but you'd sound absolutely ridiculous if you DIDN'T use the contraction (you'll be spotted as a tourist at once if you say "Ca est la vie"!).

In English, you can say either "That is life" or "That's life." In French, you pretty much HAVE to use the contraction.

I personally do not believe that contractions are ruining the English language. But I try to avoid using them at all when I write.

What really bothers me are the shortened words for example, light and lite.

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Scoobysnax

Save water drink beer!

On a (marginally) related note: the use of the word ain’t drives me crazy! Not only is the word nonsense, but I can’t figure out why in the world it’s written with an apostrophe as if it is a contraction of “ain not”, as in “You ain not leaving the house dressed like that!”

Microsoft Word, where I wrote up this post, even accepts ain’t as properly spelled English. Rather than a red underlined squiggle for a misspelling, it only gives it a green squiggle for a possible slangy grammatical violation!


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~ Complacency is far more dangerous than outrage ~

Oh geez, I gotta set you people straight.

1) I have never heard a Southerner say "you'uns," just "y'all" (present company included). "You'uns" seems to be more of a Pennsylvania + surrounding area colloquialism. I base this on the fact that I have a friend originally from PA who says "you'uns."

2) The plural form of "you" in the South is "y'all," not "y'alls." However "y'all's" is acceptable plural possessive.

3) I recall reading in Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson that "ain't" used to be an accepted word in the English language, a contraction of "am not." I guess they used "ain't" because it's easier to pronounce than "amn't."

Excellent explanation of how to use "y'all," Strainger.
Though I can nitpick grammar with the best of them, I often feel compelled to defend "y'all" as a useful plural of "you." It drives me nuts to hear it misused in movies and TV, as in someone saying "y'all" to refer to one person.
-- Greg, Atlanta
"How's ya mommanem?"

"Y'all" is the contraction for "you all". Here we sometimes say "you all" and sometimes "y'all", "you all" being the more formal term. Being a transplanted Yankee, I'm always disgusted with myself for using either, but I quickly found out that my native "you guys" offends people. Where I grew up, "you guys" meant everyone in a group regardless of gender, but here is is considered offensive to refer to females as "guys". You can call them broads, bitches, chicks, babes, whatever, but for god's sake don't call them "guys".

Scoobysnax said: "What really bothers me are the shortened words for example, light and lite."
I despise this, too. Even worse is when businesses make up catchy spellings such as "Kwik", as in "Kwik Mart". I saw a place the other day called "Kountry Korner". Makes me shudder, but at least they didn't call it "Kuntry Korner". I bet they thought about it, though.

"Y'all" is Southern.
"You'uns" or "y'uns" is Appalachian.
Here in Knoxville, we hear both, but "y'all" is more popular.
It don't make no never mind to me, I ain't as picky as some of y'all. As long as I know what y'uns's sayin'.

German also uses contractions. "Ins" is a contraction of "in das", for instance.

To be honest, the phrase "He can't go" doesn't sound any dumber to me than "He can not go." Dumbing down of a language occurs when we decrease our vocabulary. A contraction is, I guess, a new word, so I suppose it sorta increases our vocabulary.

I also like to contract thing the way I say them. "Sorta" and "gonna" are examples. I mean really, does anybody actually say "I am going to go to the store"? We say "I'm gonna." And even "I am going to" is an incorrect method of future tense.

And just to nitpick, sly, in your original post you used the word "cannot" in sentance (a). "Cannot" is, of course, a contraction. And my English teacher in high school told us that "can't" is the prefered contraction of "can not".

Your Quadell

Sly askedA) We will not be able to gather firewood where it cannot be found.
B) We won't be able to gather firewood where it can't be found.
Now, seriously. Which sentence looks/sounds better to you? Or do I need to find something else on which to spend my time?Personally, I like option #C:
C) We'll not be able to gather firewood where it can't be found.

Seriously, though, Hebrew does this kind of thing all the time with prepositions and possesives, although it might be more accurate to call them prefixes and suffixes rather than contractions.

Examples:

The preposition "from" can be either an independent word ("min") or a prefix ("m-").

The preposition "when" can be either a word ("ka'asher") or a prefix ("k'she-").

The possessive "my" can be either a word ("shelee") or a suffix ("-ee").

The possessive "your" can be either a word ("shelcha") or a suffix ("-cha").

And many other similar constructions.

At least three of the Celtic languages (Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Irish) also use contractions.

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Never regret what seemed like a good idea at the time.

Hmmmm. It seems I've touched a nerve. It wasn't my intention.

"Cannot" is a contraction? Well, I'll be dipped in shi**. I guess you do learn something every day.

However, prescriptive grammar has been known to limit people's intelligence.

So Loverock is what, a fucking genius?

Incorrect: "I am going to go to the store."
Correct: "I'm a-fixin' to go to th' store."

Incorrect: "We'll not be able to gather firewood where it can't be found."
Correct: "I reckon we ain't gonna make no far 'cause we cain't find no farwood."

The use of similar sounding words (e.g. Kountry Korner) is so that the company can trademark and make money from the name. I'm sorry if you already know that. I am not trying to be rude. Which of those sounds more sincere? The only problem is when people start to use those words as every day speech, for example "tonite".

ALso most of the contractions have been around for a very long time. I think one of the big changes was when they stopped paying writers by the word. Why would one write "can't" and recieve 1 cent as opposed to "can not" and get 2?

The correct plural of "you" is "you". There used to be the word "thou" to signify a singular person, but this was phased out by the British in the 1800's as they were being polite.

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What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose, some say your toes,
But I think it's your Mind - Frank Zappa

This is my pet peeve-people who try and cramp language with all these "should's" and "shouldn't's"(Ha!). Ain't does have a purpose-it's a contraction of "am not". As in "I am not" would be changed to "I ain't."
Contractions have nothing to do with stupidity. However, prescriptive grammar has been known to limit people's intelligence.

For what it's worth, Esperanto permits two contractions. Both the article "la" and singular nominative nouns ("kato" etc.) can drop the final vowel. This is usually poetic, e.g. to make a sentence sound more metrical. So: "por plibonigi la lingvon de la homaro" can be made iambic by contracting it to "por plibonigi l'lingvon de l'homar'".

freakmouse, you're so right. We write the English language, the English language doesn't write us or ... uh ... something.

Flochi:[/quote]The correct plural of "you" is "you".[quote] Hey, watch it now. It was statements like that that made the South want to secede in the mid-1800's! ;)

Incidentally, it bugs me when people type/write "should of" instead of "should've."

NOTE FOR THE OVER-SENSITIVE: The ;) indicates that I was kidding, not trolling.

Incorrect: "So Loverock is what, a fucking genius?"
Correct: "They's no call fer cussin', sly."

Well, this is really obscure, but contractions are NEVER used in the Latvian language. To make up for it, most lazy speakers ignore correct endings of most words.

Example: "Negribu iet majas" (I do not want to go home) becomes, "Negrib iet maja". This sounds much, much worse than contractions.

Just my $.02. People sometimes get annoyed with me for using double contactions like "y'all're" ("you all are") and "shouldn't've" ("should not have"). Guess I need to work on that if I'm going to be an English teacher. ;)

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The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
-- Henry David Thoreau

Is "won't" on a par with "aint"?

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Zymurgist

You'uns is definitely a western PA invention and it is properly pronounced "yins". Also, if I remember correctly, the contraction to l'amour in French is called something else and is not properly considered a contraction because it a) follows a specific rule and b) is always used. There is some other name for it. As has already been said, German has plenty of contractions, some formally allowed and some not.

The use of contractions, or for that matter any slang, does not contribute to the dumbing down of America. It is the lack of vocabulary and meaningful discussion, if anything.

TheDude

Here in eastern TN "you'uns" is pronounced much like it looks: "YOO-uns" or "yuhns."
Don't forget the classic Southern conversation:
"Jeet yet?"
"Naw."
"Yawnt to?"
"Ite."

Oh geez, I gotta set you people straight.

Hey Strainger, shouldn't that have been "I gotta set y'all straight" ??

Even worse is when businesses make up catchy spellings such as "Kwik", as in "Kwik Mart". I saw a
place the other day called "Kountry Korner".


The worst ones for me are the ones with phonetically offensive spelling. I remember a western 7-11 / JiffyMart kind of store called "Stufy's". Judging from the radio commercials, it was intended that we should pronounce this as "stuffy's" (to rhyme with "Duffy's), not "stoofies" (to rhyme with "Doofy's"), but whenever I saw their sign my eye would tell my brain "Stoofies". And there is, or was, a rap singer who designates/designated himself as "Flava Flav". Rhymes with "favor have" (sounds stupid)? or with "favor save" (in which case the spelling sucks)?



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Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post

TENN,
"Whutcha won't?"
" Dohn matter, knee thing"

By the way, we havin' breakfast, lunch , or supper? Just sos I'll know to put sorghum or gravy on the grits.Y'all have you some fun with them cntrctns now, yuh hear.
The only thing I know fur sure is if I hear " you all",I know the speaker a'int from TEXAS.

Italian is loaded with contractions.

il la i le l'
a al alla ai alle al'
in nel nella nei nelle nell'
di del della dei delle dell'
su sul sulla sui sulle sull'

And Welsh has not only contractions, but mutations, by which the first letters of a word regularly change according to a complex set of rules and the last letters of the word previous.

***

"Amn't" is (or was) used in Ireland. Two syllables.

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John W. Kennedy
"Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays."
-- Charles Williams

Back to the posted subject. I use "CAN NOT", instead of "CAN'T", for emphasis! "you can not" has more "zing" than "you can't". At least with my children. Also, "you'll be home by 11 o'clock", doesn't (does not) have quite the tone of "you WILL be home by....." When my dad used the the former, I knew I had a bit of leeway, the latter, none!

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Zymurgist

mr john: don'tcha mean breakfist, dinner, or supper? Round here that's what you'uns'd say if'n y'all wuz frum th' country. City folks say lunch. Knoxville lies right on the line that separates the grits-eaters from the hashbrown-eaters. That's good, cuz I like both! And homegrown maters are good with ANY meal! Yee-haw!

won't is indeed standard English. *ain't is not.

[red wings]

Find something better to waste your time on!

[AWB]

Holly sed: I despise this, too. Even worse is when businesses make up catchy spellings such as "Kwik", as in "Kwik Mart". I saw a place the other day called "Kountry Korner". Makes me shudder, but at least they didn't call it "Kuntry Korner". I bet they thought about it, though.

Or worse: "Karl's Kuntry Korner". (KKK)

I remember on "All in the Family" when Archie was invited to join the Queen's Community Club. It turned out to be the Kween's Kommunity Klub.

[John W. Kennedy]

Such misspellings are partly for legal reasons. A misspelled trademark is a unique trademark, and a unique trademark is more easily defended.

So it's not entirely in the pursuit of illiterate "cuteness".

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John W. Kennedy
"Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays."
-- Charles Williams