Contractions: gonna, wanna, tryinna

[Beverly Flanigan]

"Tryinna" seems very normal to me, as long as an infinitive follows the
contracted 'to'.  Otherwise, I'd expect the full "trying to" with implied
infinitive, as in your "going to" example.  I've also heard "wanu"; in
fact, I think (with fuzzy memory) it may have been the more common
contraction when I was younger.  But this is just impressionistic.  BTW,
was it really a schwa in the first syllable, or [a]?

At 05:28 PM 10/13/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Some loosely connected observations...
>
>I just overheard a nice example of the contexts in which "going to" can be
>contracted.
>
>Two people on the bus were discussing a mutual friend who is currently in
>jail. At one point, the specific topic had to do with the likelihood of the
>incarcerated friend mending her ways (or something like that) and one of the
>speakers said:
>
>"Ain't gonna happen. Just ain't going to."
>
>I thought it was neat to hear how even in this extremely informal
>conversation the final "to" doesn't seem to be a candidate for contraction
>for this speaker. (It was [t@], but it was clearly there.)
>
>This reminded me of a contraction on a Seinfeld episode that's been haunting
>me for a long time. Elaine is trying to convince a total stranger to drive
>her and her friends around the parking garage so that they can find their
>car. He refuses, and when Elaine insists, gives this reason: "I just don't
>[w at nu]." "But why?" Elaine whines, "why don't you [w at nu]?"
>I found that very odd. Dispense with the [t], but keep a full-blown [u]?
>
>And that reminded me of my dissertation data. I have one of my lovely
>informants saying this on tape:
>"I think I was just tryinna, I think more than complain, just let the
>neighbor know I'm aware of the situation."
>I'm not aware of having heard "tryinna" since. Maybe it does occur but isn't
>noticed?
>
>(It's kinda depressing to notice that these instances of contracted or
>uncontracted "to" have been cluttering my memory for years.)
>
>-Mai