eye dialect

[Mark A. Mandel]

Victoria Neufeldt <vneufeldt at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM> writes:

>>>>>
I believe that the short written forms "gonna" and "gotta" are synonymous
with their respective standard written forms.
     [expatiation snipped]
<<<<<

Synonymous but not equivalent to. As dInIs said,

>Eye-dialect refers to spellings which do not indicate any actual
>change in  the way words are pronounced. The best example is "sez."

"Gonna" represents a pron that is only part of the range of prons of "going
to", often with a different meaning, and using the five-letter spelling can
pin down just which one is meant. Ditto "gotta".


(BTW, dInIs, why do your posts so often treat (what I take to be) your own
original message as quotation, with left-column '>'?)

-- Mark