[QUOTE=Sage Rat]
I didn’t initially think that Japanese had contractions, but now I have to admit that they’ll contract long names down.
[/QUOTE]
I addressed Chinese earlier and ignis_glaciesque expanded.
As for Japanese, there are a lot more contractions than shortened names and nouns, especially in dialects. See:
そっちんワープロじゃ、使えんっちゅうこっちゃないけど Socchi’n waapuro ja, tsukaen 'chuu kotcha nai kedo
(It’s not that it can’t be used with the word processor over there.)
Versus:
そちらのワードプロセッサでは、使えないということはないけれども Sochira no waado-purosessa de wa, tsukaenai to iu koto wa nai keredomo
That’s an extreme example but contractions like 'chatta for te-shimatta, socchi for sochira or ja for de wa are a fundamental part of the language.
[QUOTE=Indistinguishable]
where “have to” and “can not” reduce while “have two” and “can knot” do not.
[/QUOTE]
I should also point out that, at least in such dialects as I’m familiar with, “have to”, “going to”, “want to”, etc., only reduce where “to” serves to introduce a (possibly elided) infinitival phrase. Thus, at least in my dialect, you can say “I’m gonna leave soon” but not *“I’m gonna the store”. This is fairly similar to the sorts of things which happen with more “standard” contractions; e.g., “I can’t remember” vs. *“I can’t only speak Russian, but read it as well” or “If I’d studied more, I would’ve done better” vs. *“If I were rich, I would’ve a lot of money”.
To be complete, there are also spoken-only contractions, such as 'Worcester" (or a town down South, written “Maryville” but pronounced “Murrville” by those who live there).
I suppose written-only contractions would be called abbreviations.
[QUOTE=bordelond]
EDIT: also, I’m assuming non-alphabetic written languages like Chinese are out? I wonder about syllabic systems such as many of the languages of India?
[/QUOTE]
Spoken Bengali and Hindi use some contractions. They can be written if you want to. (Anything that can be spoken can be written in the Indian writing systems.) I don’t have an extensive knowledge of written Bengali or Hindi, but I assume that “modern” literature that uses vernacular language would use written forms of the contractions.
[QUOTE=twickster]
What about Espreranto? Aren’t they (theoretically, at least) strict about that?
[/QUOTE]
Nope! They’ll sometimes drop the final “o” on the nouns, as in this example from the Esperanto hymn: * “Al la mond’ eterne militanta ĝi promesas sanktan harmonion.”*
Seems Thai does have at least two contractons, as I was reminded today. Dichan, one of the words for “I,” is often shortened to chan. And prachanan, which means “therefore,” is occasionally chanan.
[QUOTE=ignis_glaciesque]
The Beijing dialect is also notorious throughout China for forming shortened words with the -r sound at the end. So, instead of the ‘standard’ 昨天 zuótiān, we get the Beijing 昨儿 zuór. This extends to a lot of expressions — you might hear 那儿 nàr for 那里 nàli, 今儿 jīnr for 今天 jīntiān, and so on.
[/QUOTE]
Not sure I would not call that a diminuative, as in the British “er” or “ers” practice (Association Football => soccer, f’rinstance.
