CHAT: Contractions (was Re: Re: Austin, Utopia, Uglossia, and Bats.)

----- Original Message -----
From: Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 1999 8:18 PM
Subject: Re: Austin, Utopia, Uglossia, and Bats.


> Irina Rempt-Drijfhout wrote:
> > ya'll
>
> AAAAAAARGH!!!  It's *y'all*, NOT *ya'll*!  Sorry, wee little pet peeve
> of mine, that sometimes shows up in writing.  It's a contraction of "you
> all" not "ya will".  :-)  Actually, it's probably evidence that it's no
> longer processed as a contraction, and so people forget where the
> apostrophe should go.
Hey everyone. What should be the proper spelling of /lIl/, the contraction
of <little>? I most often see it as <li'l>, but that annoys me since the
original word doesn't end in <l>. Same with <'n> (/@n/) for <and>... I think
it should be <'n'> but the two apostrophes look clumsy right near each
other. What do you think?