"Gonna" is in the dictionary! Whoa. I kind of can't believe that. As in, "I'm going to get you, my little pretty!" Only all slurred together and mispronounced as, "I'm gonna get you, my little pretty!" I had no idea that was a legitimate word.
I heard someone on the radio use the word this morning and I started thinking about how difficult it must be for non-native English speakers to figure out that one. But I guess not. They can just look it up.
Language evolves. Yes indeed.
2 comments:
That does not surprise me. Where I live, language has REALLY evolved (and that is the ONLY thing that has evolved for most folk) The southern dictionary has much more... like "might could" (long draw on the might) as in...
Well I might could get you, my little pretty!
or "directly" which down here is used as a sort of future tense of go, as in
Oh I'll get you, my little pretty, directly!
You may want to verify these words in the southern dictionary while on your trip.
DB
There are two kinds of dictionaries: Prescriptive (This is how it should be done) and Descriptive (This is how it's being done).
Prescriptive will probably not list "gonna."
Descriptive will list it as "substandard" or "colloquial" or something like that. As if to say, "It's here, it's queer, get used to it."
A Descriptive dictionary will not say everything is ok, use any word you want, but merely that a word is in common use, with an indication that it is not the best word for proper usage.
I had a word included in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, "hizzoner," which is a slang term for a mayor, a respelling of the title "His Honor." It's been around for a long time, but never included until I could come up with suitable citations.
Like "gonna" in speech, "hizzoner" is an evolved print evolution.
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