Re: Tho (was: Blandness (was: Uusisuom's influences))

Nik Taylor wrote:
>
>David Peterson wrote:
> > This much is true.  I can remember the autobiography of Benjamin
> > Franklin.  It was hideously annoying with those awful abbreviations.
> > I'd just like to point out that just because lots of people do
> > something or because people have done something in the past doesn't
> > make that something right or desireable.
>
>Excuse me, but language is all about commonly accepted conventions.
>
>Besides, I still find it odd that you accept contractions like "I'd" but
>not contractions like "tho".  So, please tell me, what decides whether a
>contraction is acceptable or not?
_I'd_ and _tho_ aren't very comparable, are they? _Tho_ is just another
spelling of _though_ - they correspond to the same pronunciation /T@u/.
_I'd_, on the other hand, is an attempt to represent in writing a
contraction that occures in spoken English. In a more formal style David
would probably written _I would_ instead, which corresponds to a quite
different pronunciation - /ai wUd/ rather than /aid/.

Now, I don't think that _tho_ is wron in anyway, indeed I sometimes use it
myself (more often _tho'_, tho'!), but I see little inconsistency in
disliking abbreviations like _tho_ and still use _I'd_.

                                                     Andreas
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