CONTRACTIONS: THE SILENT ERA

"FRANKLY, MY DEAR, I DO NOT GIVE A 

THOUGHT TO CONTRACTIONS"

I digress. In every movie I have commented on, not one actor had a problem pronouncing contractions. The apostrophe was recognized as having a reason. It eliminates a letter. That letter is silent because, not surprisingly, it is missing. The contraction was pronounced as it was spelled. They never invented a word to override the apostrophe, which defeats the purpose of a contracted word in the first place. I am not a grammarian. It is as simple as right and wrong. 

"OF ALL THE WORDS IN ALL THE TOWNS IN ALL 

THE WORLD, SHE PRONOUNCES 

CONTRACTIONS LIKE THAT"

Oddly, most contracted words are not mispronounced. The annoying habit typically contains an ending “d” of the first non-contracted word. Two common examples are the words, “didn’t” (did not) and “wouldn’t” (would not). They are not pronounced “dident” or “wouldent.” Nowhere is the word “dent” included in the spelling of the contracted word. Jane Greer “dident” say it. Sterling Hayden “wouldent” say it. Claire Trevor “couldent” say it. The fabricated word is so beloved, however, some young females cannot resist its usage. Regardless of which sex dominates its usage, can we at least assume this “affliction” only affects those under forty? In a word. Yes’m. 

Thankfully, only a portion of a select group falls prey to this aberration. The few. The oblivious. The Millennials. Generation Y makes up the majority of offenders. Logically, we assume that they have no idea why an apostrophe is in a contraction or have never seen the word in print. Attempt to advise them on the proper pronunciation, their response is similar to a deer in headlights. If the “practice” were more widespread I might accept it, like I have accepted the combining of two words to make a confusing one, as in “Online,” “Linkedin” or “Login.” One can imagine the time I have saved by doing this. There may be some crossover offenders in Generation X but you cannot go back before that generation and expect contractions to be ignored. 

"WHAT WE'VE GOT HERE IS FAILURE 

OF COMMUNICATION"

I suspect technology and societal change can be rightfully blamed, given the increase in non-verbal communication. It takes time to search for an apostrophe on a smartphone. Just spell it in a letter arrangement of one's choosing. Like, "Your great!" instead of correctly spelling it, "You're great!" Not caring fits in there somewhere. Unintelligible, rapid speech does, indeed, gloss over them. Lack of educational discipline has to share some blame or maybe a parent with the same anomaly. These offenders have never been taught how to correctly pronounce certain common words at an early age. Teachers will no longer correct a student's “preference” for mispronouncing a word, fearing a lawsuit or defamation of character.  

There is no shortage of grammar guidelines on the Internet. Yet, apparently, they are very hard to find. I suspect this speech malady will not correct itself. One generation will screw it up for the next one. Abandoning the contraction altogether would solve these grating, airhead errors but I suspect mispronunciation may be due to one fact. It is physically easier. One needs the innate ability to place the tip of the tongue behind the front teeth, near the roof of the mouth, for that apostrophe. “That’s hard, dude. You can't make me do that!”

Note: One lame excuse would be to blame the, sometimes illogical, American way of spelling. To illustrate, the “t” in “often” is silent and preferred as is the second “d” in “hidden.” It is never two words, “hid den.” Though there is nothing odd about the spelling of "important," the curse of the "Ds" continues. One cannot replace the first "t" or the "a" in the word with a "d" and an "e." This is very "impordent."