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Anoran · **Posted:** Wed 31 Oct 2012 12:27 am

linguoboy wrote:

Anoran wrote:

That said, I don't know of any case in English where you'd intentionally contract three words into one.

Doncha?

Okay, correction. Now I do!

Didn't think of that one. There's probably some others out there, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

Pax · Joined:Fri 21 Sep 2012 10:23 am Posts:23

Whatcha- What do you

choc_pud · Joined:Fri 21 Sep 2012 12:53 am Posts:58

"Tisn't" is okay where I live, as is "mayn't". But often words like "wouldn't" and shouldn't" get contracted even further to "wunt", and "shunt". An' suchlike. :ugeek:

linguoboy · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 9:02 am Posts:1010

Anoran wrote:

linguoboy wrote:

Anoran wrote:

That said, I don't know of any case in English where you'd intentionally contract three words into one.

Doncha?

Okay, correction. Now I do!

Didn't think of that one. There's probably some others out there, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

Dincha? Betcha'll find a lottuvem now thatcher lookin' fer'em'n'all.

Besides the verb + not + you examples already given there's also a series of verb + not + have, e.g. shouldn't've/shouldna. IMD there's a similar series of pronoun + will + have, e.g. I'll've. Some speakers I know contract Did you eat yet? into Jeet yet? and use it as a generalised greeting.

Then we also have noun + of + a as in helluva/hella and sonuvabitch (contracted further by some speakers further to sumbitch.) In the same vein, there's goddammit and fuggedaboutit. In fact, Southern American comedian Jeff Foxworthy built a whole routine out of four-or-more-word examples from his dialect, such as "Momonyms" and "Smatterchew?"

Tikolm · **Posted:** Sat 10 Nov 2012 2:48 pm

According to Wikipedia, 'tisn't is an Irish thing.

linguoboy wrote:

fer'em'n'all

Sure that's a contraction, but what's the 'n' doing in there?

linguoboy wrote:

Some speakers I know contract Did you eat yet? into Jeet yet? and use it as a generalised greeting.

The "generalized greeting" part is weird. I can believe contracting Did you eat into Jeet, but...this as a greeting is stranger even than s'mae (N)/shwmai (S) (< sut mae [lit. "how is"]) being equivalent to "Hi" and os gwelwch yn dda (lit. "if [you] will see well") meaning "please". (yes, wrong language, but whatever)

linguoboy wrote:

Then we also have noun + of + a as in helluva/hella and sonuvabitch (contracted further by some speakers further to sumbitch.) In the same vein, there's goddammit and fuggedaboutit. In fact, Southern American comedian Jeff Foxworthy built a whole routine out of four-or-more-word examples from his dialect, such as "Momonyms" and "Smatterchew?"

What's fuggedaboutit? I assume smatterchew (which might easily be unintelligible to a speaker of a more northerly dialect) is "what's the matter with you?", but that seems like an odd way to contract with with you.

Anders · Joined:Wed 20 May 2009 10:23 am Posts:52 Location: Sweden

Tikolm wrote:

What's fuggedaboutit?

forget about it

linguoboy · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 9:02 am Posts:1010

Tikolm wrote:

linguoboy wrote:

fer'em'n'all

Sure that's a contraction, but what's the 'n' doing in there? :?

"for them and all" > "fer'em'n'all"

Tikolm wrote:

linguoboy wrote:

Some speakers I know contract Did you eat yet? into Jeet yet? and use it as a generalised greeting.

The "generalized greeting" part is weird. I can believe contracting Did you eat into Jeet, but...this as a greeting is stranger even than s'mae (N)/shwmai (S) (< sut mae [lit. "how is"]) being equivalent to "Hi"

Actually, it's not. Equivalents to "Did you eat?" are found in all the East Asian languages.

Tikolm wrote:

linguoboy wrote:

I assume smatterchew (which might easily be unintelligible to a speaker of a more northerly dialect) is "what's the matter with you?", but that seems like an odd way to contract with with you.

Does it? "witcha"/"witchou" seems common enough in informal American English to me.

Tikolm · **Posted:** Mon 17 Dec 2012 9:06 pm

Anders wrote:

Tikolm wrote:

What's fuggedaboutit?

forget about it

So this is another example of non-rhotic North American. Would be nice if somebody could indicate that the stress wasn't on the first syllable as I assumed it was.

Tikolm · **Posted:** Mon 17 Dec 2012 9:09 pm

linguoboy wrote:

Tikolm wrote:

linguoboy wrote:

fer'em'n'all

Sure that's a contraction, but what's the 'n' doing in there?

"for them and all" > "fer'em'n'all"

I see.

linguoboy wrote:

Tikolm wrote:

linguoboy wrote:

Some speakers I know contract Did you eat yet? into Jeet yet? and use it as a generalised greeting.

The "generalized greeting" part is weird. I can believe contracting Did you eat into Jeet, but...this as a greeting is stranger even than s'mae (N)/shwmai (S) (< sut mae [lit. "how is"]) being equivalent to "Hi"

Actually, it's not. Equivalents to "Did you eat?" are found in all the East Asian languages.

That doesn't make it any less strange, just more common.

linguoboy wrote:

Tikolm wrote:

I assume smatterchew (which might easily be unintelligible to a speaker of a more northerly dialect) is "what's the matter with you?", but that seems like an odd way to contract with with you.

Does it? "witcha"/"witchou" seems common enough in informal American English to me.

That's funny. Why is the fricative in with being realized as a plosive?

Dan_ad_nauseam · Joined:Sat 18 Apr 2009 5:25 am Posts:203

Tikolm wrote:

Anders wrote:

Tikolm wrote:

What's fuggedaboutit?

forget about it

So this is another example of non-rhotic North American. Would be nice if somebody could indicate that the stress wasn't on the first syllable as I assumed it was.

Roughly /fə 'gɛd də 'baʊ̯d ɪt/