You know what I’m talking about! When post authors relay something like this “you should’a said it to they faces!”, obviously to ridicule the speaker. They imply that the speaker was an idiot because he thought that the word “they” was appropriate. In actuality,the author looks like the idot. The speaker is of course, not saying “they”, but “their” and dropping the “r” as his accent dictates. So if you must point out he accent of the speaker, writing “thei’” would be prudent. Think how silly you’d look if you wrote about how Bostoners love to “potty”, rather than “pahty”.
pardon?
I believe the OP is talking about so-called Eubonics, in which “their” is pronounced like “day”.
I know. I was just hinting at the slight rambliness/breathlessness of the OP.
I beg to differ.
Are you joking? That’s not what I was talking about at all!
Nobody listen to him! That’s not right at all!
The bees are in the what now?
Step right up, I’ll touch ya for a quarter!
who is him? or he? Oh God, I think it might be catching.
-Lil
Oh, so I’m supposed to write “thei” now, because a group of people who speaks with various speech impediments do not know how to properly communicate ?
Exactly which slang or dialect are you referring to ?
It’s a confusing OP, but I see the point. It’s easy for some people to make fun of a phrase like: “I went over to they house…” What the OP is saying is that it is not incorrect use of the word ‘they’. The phrase could be correctly written with the possessive form of the word: “I went over to their house…” but the word “their” just sounds different depending upon the dialect.
An interesting point, but I’m not sure it is correct. I’d like to see how several people who make this apparent error write the sentence out.
Don’t beg. It’s not dignified.
Neither. It’s an accent, you 'ron! Accent! ACCENT! Hello? Am I the only person who has ever heard of an accent? The word is in my dictionary, “a characteristic pronunciation”. I didn’t say anything about dialect or “Eubonics”, I was merely pointing out a peeve I have with a commonly mistranscribed ACCENT. Stop adding stuff to what I wrote.
How do you mistranscribe a vocalization. A grunt is a grunt in Chinese or German.
I have an Indian friend who thinks “Harvard” and “Howard” sound the same, and an Italian friend pronounces “Tuesday” and “Thursday” similarily because of their ACCENTS! ACCENTS! ACCENTS! MURDER!
I disagree. If this were a matter of accent, it would follow that similarly pronounced words would be similarly altered. I do not think this is the case. Consider the following hypothetical conversation:
“‘Scuse me, I’m lookin’ for Brad and Ashleigh. Where they at?”
“Brad and Ashleigh? They over there, talkin’ to they broker.”
Now, it seems to me, that if this were purely a matter of accent, “their” and “there” would be similarly “mis”-pronounced, because that is how their regional dialect renders that particular sound. This is not the case. If the dialect can properly render a homophone for “their” but not the word “their” itself, this implies to me that this is not simply a matter of pronunciation, but of word substitution.
However, I’m not a linguist, and I’m betting the OP isn’t one, either. I’m open to correction if my logic is flawed.
“except when said ‘ay’, like ‘neighbor’ and ‘weigh’”
The “ei” in their makes an “ay” sound. What’s intersting is that in your accent “there” and “their” are homophones, but they don’t have to be. A person that would drop the “r” in “their” would do the same for “there”. “There” would then become “theh”, and not be a homophone for “their”.
And no, I’m not a professional linguist, but I’m interested enough in the topic to not go off spouting willy-nilly without having any idea what I’m talking about (just a disclaimer. I’m not implying an insult).
“Well. Theh 'tis.” — The Austrian Emperor
I’m not sure that’s necessarily the case. I think what we need to do to test it is to find someone with that way of speaking, and ask them to spell the word. I’m betting ‘their’, but it could be ‘they’.