Reductions across Varieties

[Paul Sevigny]

There have been several studies promoting the benefits of teaching
reductions to help with both speaking and listening comprehension. A
popular text for American English reductions is Whaddaya Say by Nina
Weinstein. She introduces these:

you *ya
what do you, what are you *whaddaya
wanna *want to
going to *gonna
don't know *donno
to *ta
got to *gotta
have to *hafta
has to *hasta
your *yer
/t/+ you *cha
what you *whacha
/d/+you *ja
/d/+your *jer
or *er
he *'e
his * 'is
and *'n'
can *kin
of *a
should + have + past participle * shoulda
would *woulda
could *coulda
must * musta
may *maya
might *mighta

While the spelling is wrong, the relaxed spoken pronunciation is right on.
The question that comes up is invariably this:
Are these reductions the same in other varieties of English or are they
very different?

Paul Sevigny
Niigata University sev...@ED.NIIGATA-U.AC.JP

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