Don't let's

[Benjamin Barrett]

I finally just got it: but in what sense?

I could argue that my apostrophe was because standard rules of
orthography don't apply to regional speech, that it is being used to
differentiate the pronoun from the plural noun "mines", or that mine is
already possessive, so I'm allowed to add an apostrophe in this case.

But alas, I have no such excuse. I was LOLing because you caught me with
my punctuation down. BB

Dennis Preston wrote:
> BIWS.
>
> dInIs
>
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Don't let's
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> LOL.
>>
>> Dennis Preston wrote:
>>
>>>  What's the apostrophe for? This is surely by analogy with his, hers,
>>>  yours, its, ours, and theirs, being the odd guy out (no -s).
>>>
>>>  dInIs
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>  -----------------------
>>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>  Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
>>>>  Subject:      Re: Don't let's
>>>>
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>>  "Mine's" meaning "mine".
>>>>
>>>>  That's mine's. BB
>>>>
>>>>  Benjamin Lukoff wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>   On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>   Another example where I probably disagree with many on this list is the
>>>>>>   use of "mine's". Many probably would find it ungrammatical, yet it is
>>>>>>   acceptable to me as a part of Asian-American Seattle culture, which I
>>>>>>   was surrounded by as a teenager.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>   "Mine's"? Can you elaborate? I'm a (part) Asian-American from Seattle
>>>>>   (born and raised) and can't quite place it. (I was a teenager
>>>>>
>>>> >from 1988 to
>>>>
>>>>>   1995.)
>>>>>
>>>>>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org