Mercan is both the language commonly used here in the USA, and a game. Track your points as you play. The rules are simple, you get 1 point for every syllable you remove from a phrase. The classic example is the English phrase “It is in the refrigerator”. It can be rephrased in Mercan as “tzinna fridge”. This is worth 6 points since the English phrase has 9 syllables and the Mercan version has only 3.
I think this game would work better in Strine.
But here’s one: Y’et yet? Have you eaten yet? 3 points.
My dog loves to play “getchertoy” (aka "fetch) negative 2 points.
While there are certainly a few parts of this country that regularly swallow syllables (I’m living in one of them, y’all), I find it quite weird to assert that Americans in general do this, compared to, say, people from the British Isles. Certainly, it isn’t true in the Midwest, rarely true on the West Coast, and not really very likely in much of the Northeast, except perhaps from places like Rhode Island…
Yeah, people in Minnesota add syllables to words. And make the vowels longer, so they take two or three times as long to say.
Djeetyet?
Sup? (What is up?) Two points.
Sapnin? (What is happening?) Three points.
Hell, you can contract it to “jeet” for “have you eaten” and you can argue the “yet” is implied, too.
4 points. Nice.
“Jeet?”
“D’joo?”
“Squeet.”
That was a common conversation between my friends in college.
Did you eat?
Did you?
. . . . I got nothin’ for that last one though.
Now if it said s’go-eet, I’d be with you.
Lets go eat.
Joowanna takboutit?
Dowanna takboutit.
<Psychotic Stare>
Translation: “My good man, I do believe you have offended me to such a horrendous degree that I have no choice but to eviscerate you where you stand both as a lesson to you and as an example to others who would dare cross me in such an egregious manner.”
Dude?
Translation: Are you behind the bushes with a butcher knife?!?
I’m in Kansas, and where I live we may not add or reduce syllables, but often the letter “r” is inserted where it does not belong.
“I warshed my clothes”
“I attended Warshburn University.”
Note that there’s no rule saying you need to get a positive number as a result. It’s Mercan, there’s really no rules at all.
Huh, “warsh” is a Kansas thing, too? I’ve always associated that with the Appalachians. Along with “wooder” for “water”.
Know sayn? = Do you understand what I am saying? = 8 points
It seems to pop up almost anywhere. I noticed more of it in PA than other places. Another strange one is ‘crown’ for ‘crayon’.
Then there’s the people who find a way to pronounce “green” as “gre-un”.