Holy crap, people still have a problem with ain’t? Granted, I wouldn’t use it in formal writing, but I’m amazed it still sounds like shit to some people–it’s been around since the freakin’ 18th century.
I prefer nonantidisirregardless.
Clearly, people have picked up use of the word “irregardless” from some fairly common exposure in the world around them. It may not be the more common word, but then, most people don’t run the full statistical check before they speak.
I’m sure “sho’nuff,” “all y’all” and pronouncing “washing” as “warshing” have been around a long time, too, but it doesn’t change the fact that, like “ain’t” using them makes a person sound like a bumpkin.
Sure are a helluva lotta bumpkins in this country, then.
I just stopped in to conversate*.
*I HATE that this word has been added to certain dictionaries.
Yeah! It’s almost as bad as when they added “donate”, “manipulate”, and “automate”. I don’t see what was wrong with the old dictionaries; can’t we just keep on using them?
If this really bothers you just send them your irregards.
Irregardless, see post #17.
Whenever my friend or myself hear this word, we literally shit our pants. Supposably, it’s becoming alot more common.
I have never in my life considered “ain’t” a sign of bumpkinhood. It’s very, very common in urban dialects, especially in phrase like “ain’t it?”
I hope for your sake you don’t hear it too often, considering how many pairs of underwear you would literally have to replace.
Yet more whooshing… notice the nonstandard use of “myself”, “supposably”, and “alot” in there.
‘tain’t nuthin’
“Donate” is a back-formation from “donation”. There was no previous verb form; in the case of “conversate”, we already had a perfectly good verb form in “converse”.
“Irregardless” is kind of like “thru.” Teachers will grade you down for using it, copyeditors and proofreaders will sigh and fix it, and educated people will lower their opinion of you for using it. Unfortunately, none of that will make it go away.
You probably mean “biddy” unless you’re saying she’s a tiny thing.
Yep. That’s why the word’s official slogan says: “AIN’T: Making people sound like bumpkins since the freakin’ 18th century.” 
Heaven forbid the existence of synonyms! I’m glad to see you understand this danger, the very same danger which had been posed by “donate”; what was the use in adding this word to dictionaries, when we already had such perfectly good ones as “grant”, “contribute”, and “bequeath”? Why, they should’ve been removing words from that particularly saturated semantic corner, rather than recklessly bloating it even more!
Still, there are some who feel that this blatant disregard for parsimony is only of concern when the neologism is etymologically related to its synonyms. Very well then: though we have our disagreements, our cause is at root the same, and I stood together with such brothers-in-arms of mine in the attempts to defend the language against “dubious”, “exert”, and “terrorize”, when the perfectly sufficient “doubtful”, “exercise”, and “terrify” had been in steady employment for years. And those monstrous little pairs: “rise”/“arise”, “wake”/“awake”, “wait”/await"… oh, they keep me up at night.
The problem with irregardless/regardless isn’t that they’re synonyms – it’s that people can never remember that they’re synonyms.
People expect the pair to function like irreproachable/reproachable, irreplacable/replacable, etc. That isn’t correct, but it is common enough that people are going to stop and think “Wait… does that mean ‘not regardless’ or ‘regardless’ here?”. So just go with the word whose meaning is clearer.
Not every word is worth Fighting The Good Fight against Oppression or whatever or whomever is trying to control how you speak and think today, no matter how hard it is to pass up a Cause to champion.
(Likewise, as I alluded to earlier, inflammable/flammable – last year we had a contractor in our chemical plant think that inflammable = “not flammable”. which could have been infun if someone hadn’t caught him in time to check for flammable vapors.)
Can I tell you guys a secret?
I experience a sort of guilty catharsis from imagining myself using the people who say “irregardless” as fuel for a beach bonfire.
Though/although the act/action/activity will undoubtedly/indubitably be ineffective/ineffectual, notice/note the OP as a(n) example/sample of permissible/permitted variation/variance/variety: “electrical” or “electric”?
As for me, I am especially/specially suited/suitable to this use/utilization: “indistinguishable” or “indistinct”?