old hat

[Wilson Gray]

The use of "your" for "you're" and the use of "you're" for "your" in writing
are so common, in my experience, as hardly to be worthy of mention. But I am
surprised to see that this phenomenon is so old, though.

Likewise, there are people who pronounce "your" as though it was spelled
"you're" and who pronounce "you're" as though it was spelled "your." In my
experience, this is a peculiarity of some dialects of White (American)
English. I didn't become aware of it until I joined the Army in the late
'50's. I found - and find - this usage *extremely* annoying, to the extent
that I once foolishly tried to get such speakers not to use it. Needless to
say, I had no success whatsoever. They didn't even understand what I was
driving at. So, I just had to learn to live with it.

I'd like to think that the pronunciation influences the spelling, but I have
no evidence for this beyond wishful thinking.

-Wilson



On 3/3/06, Jonathon Green <slang at abecedary.net> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathon Green <slang at ABECEDARY.NET>
> Subject:      Re: old hat
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> George Thompson wrote:
> > [...] I notice the nearly 100 year gap in the OED's citations between
> 1796
> > and 1893, and that both these are from dictionaries.
> Nice _NY Sporting Whip_ stuff, George. A couple more mid-century
> 'free-range' examples:
>
> 1841 in _The Gentleman's Spicey Songster_ [song title] 'Mother H's
> Knocking Shop; or, A Bit Of Old Hat!'
>
> c.1864 'The Female Auctioneer' in Anon. _The Rakish Rhymer_ (1917) 137:
> And if your [sic] fond of nice— _old hat_, / I've some that you can buy.
>
>
>
> JG
>
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