LL-L "Grammar" 2005.12.01 (08) [E]

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01 December 2005 * Volume 08
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From: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2005.12.01 (02) [E]

Dave Singleton wrote:
> The Of Have Debate.
>
> It seems that the lines are being drawn here!
> Is this not a case of dialect pronunciation causing a grammatical
> modification !

What about the glaring obvious:"could of / would of" is just a way to
pronounce the short forms "could've" and "would've", which are basically
unpronounceable without inserting a vowel of choice. But since this is a
somewhat strained construction, most people probably just can't think of how
to spell it properly, or they don't want to bother with the apostrophe. It's
similar to German "nichts" spelled "nix" in an informal setting (often
enough that most foreigners appear to believe this is actually the correct
spelling).

This is a good time to re-run the story about that radio station in Cork...

A Cork radio station was running a competition - words that weren't in the
dictionary yet could still be used in sentence that would make logical
sense. The prize was a trip to Bali.

DJ: "96FM here, what's your name?"
Caller: "Hi, me name's Dave."

DJ: "Dave, what's your word?"
Caller: "Goan... spelt, G-O-A-N, pronounced 'go-an'."

DJ: "... You are correct, Dave, 'goan' is not in the dictionary. Now, for a
trip to Bali: What sentence can you use that word in that would make sense?"
Caller: "Goan f**k yourself!"

The DJ cut the caller short and took other calls, all unsuccessful until:

DJ: "96FM, what's your name?"
Caller: "Hi, me name's Jeff."

DJ: "Jeff, what's your word?"
Caller: "Smee... spelt S-M-E-E, pronounced 'smee'."

DJ: "... You are correct, Jeff, 'smee' is not in the dictionary. Now, for a
trip to Bali: What sentence can you use that word in that would make sense?"
Caller: "Smee again! Goan f**k yourself!"

Gabriele Kahn

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From: heather rendall <HeatherRendall at compuserve.com>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2005.12.01 (02) [E]

Here's one to set the argument spinning!

What is the past tense of 'to light' .... a fire, for example

And how do you pronounce it?

Heather 

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