If you read one of my novels you’re gonna see it all over the place - though mostly or entirely in quoted dialogue. (For the narration I put on airs.)
Even when I was a kid 40-plus years ago, we would joke that we could tell where someone was from based on whether they said “I’m gunna,” “I’m goyna,” “I’m gunta,” “I’m unna,” “Munna,” or “Ongana.”
When did finna become a word? Growing up I heard fixing to but no finna. I think the earliest I heard that word had to be mid 90s.
I looked up finna because I had no idea what it meant. Now that I know it comes from “fixing to,” which I have never heard anyone say outside of TV, books, and Jeff Foxworthy bits, it makes sense that I’ve never heard anyone say finna IRL either. We don’t fix to do things here; we just do them.
Dunno about that…