[Ads-l] I'm a < I'm going to

[Geoffrey Nathan]

What I find interesting is the spelling 'imma', which I see on many blog postings. I find that so completely bizarre I'm not sure what to do with it. Perhaps because I know English spelling rules, I can't help reading is as anything other than /Im@/ (sorta rhyming with 'inner').


According to Urban Dictionary:


Used in place of "I am going to..." Technically should be spelled i'mma but since this is a shortened version, we leave out the apostrophe!


I don't buy this, but, as Wilson would say, yanevano!


Geoffrey S. Nathan
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________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 4:41 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: I'm a < I'm going to

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: I'm a < I'm going to
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That's true. I first heard it in '87 and Labov noted it as a feature of BE
several years before that.

On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 3:31 PM, Benjamin Barrett <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Nothing surprising in =E2=80=9CI=E2=80=99m a=E2=80=9D for =E2=80=9CI=E2=
=80=99m going to=E2=80=9D. Here is a use in a song
> and written as =E2=80=9CI=E2=80=99ma" on a lyrics site.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DqHm9MG9xw1o <https://www.youtube.com/
> watch?v=3DqHm9MG9xw1o> (2:25)
> http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/onerepublic/secrets.html <
> http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/onerepublic/secrets.html>
>
> =E2=80=9CSecrets=E2=80=9D (2009) by OneRepublic
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--=20
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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