representing reduced auxiliaries orthographically

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

in e-mail from a stanford staff member today, about an event i'm unable
to attend:
----
Hi Arnold,

Sorry you can't make it, they'll be more events soon!
-----

as a transcription of speech (for something standing for "there will"),
this is right on.  i myself would say [DEl] (where [D] is a voiced
interdental fricative and [E] a lax mid front vowel).  this rhymes with
"bell" and is homophonous with my usual pronunciation of "they'll"
(standing for "they will").  this is not, however, the standard
spelling (which is "there'll", but that clearly has two syllables in
it, not to mention an [r]).

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)