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Stressed and unstressed
Many English words are said differently when
unstressed. Spelling the unstressed form is a typical piece of
eye-dialect |
'fer' for 'for';
I'll smoke yours fer you, lookin' fer a chance
'ter' for 'to': ask him
ter play, I don' wan' ter go
'yer'
for 'your': loosen yer braces, that's
yer lot, Look at yer 'ead, 'Way yer go, Shut yer face
'me' for 'my' : Me name's Dave, me mum's at the top of the hill, She's me mum, I'm
on me own tonight (common enough variant pronunciation of
'mi')
'bin' for
'been': she's bin looking fer as
chance, many a time I've bin down Romany lane, where you
bin?
''' for 'h': take 'im with you, will you miss 'im, I might 'ave
to, what was 'er name (even standard English speakers usually have no 'h'
in these)
'’em' for
'them': a big brown colt leading 'em,
I told 'em I was thirty
'd'you' for
'do you': what d'you mean? D'you
reckon it's true? How'd it go? D'you mind I come inside?
'gonna' for 'going to' if you're gonna be around, gonna hang you by the
neck, gonna burn it?,
'an'' for
'and': it costs an arm an' a
leg
'outta' for 'out of'
: get him outta here
'kinda' for 'kind of': you kinda lift your legs kinda up, kinda mixed up
inside
'sort've/sorta for 'sort
of': We had this sort've a
gang
'wanna' for 'want to':
I don't wanna know
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Alternative eye-dialect spellings for the same
sounds
Spelling words as they
sound makes them look non-standard. Most of these could not be pronounced
in any other way.
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'wot' for 'what':
Wot’s ’appenin’? Wots ’e want?. 'Wot?' said Wildon, Wot are you
doing? Wot can he do?
'woz' for
'was': It woz nuffink.
'shore' for 'sure': Sorry I’m shore. (the 'ooh-er' pronunciation is probably
old-fashioned now)
'guv'/'luv'; they
can see me, luv, at any time, all right, luv
'n' for 'and': off n' on
(see page 000)
'corled' for
'called': ’e corled ’isself somefink
else
'Mister/mistah' for
'Mr': sorry mister, 'ere mistah,
Mister Comstock!
'Missus' for
'Mrs':
'gimme': Gimme Gimme
Gimme
'fella' for
'fellow': skinny fella, what's 'e do,
your fella? Look fellas …
'n'' for
'ing'; that's somethin' you don't
often see, you're goin' to grass on 'em, nice talkin' to you (the 'in'
pronunciation is a variant, shown also on page 000)
'yew' for 'you': mind yew
's'pose' for 'I
suppose': two or three weeks I
s'pose
'bludy' for
'bloody': That's bludy truble, I'm
bludy hungry
'rrf' for
'off': That'd come orf, 'Ands orf
(may be either the usual pronunciation or an old-fashioned one with the
same sound as 'awf' in 'awful')
'S'cuse' for 'excuse me':
'C'mon' for 'come on':
'P'raps'
for 'perhaps': p'raps I
won't
'reely' for
'really': This ain't his property,
reely |
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Sundry exclamations
Non-standard speakers in novels also use several exclamations, all
of which are probably rare in real life: |
crikey, strewth, blimey, cor |
