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Indeed!

Verily, I say...
Ergo!

Objection!

Sustained!

I was hoping to come up with a question while I was objecting, Your Honor...

I didn't.

hi

Ironically, this thread stalled at page 13.

Since it is nearing Halloween, let's try and get it out of the unlucky number.

Random Words

Ironically, this thread stalled at page 13.

Since it is nearing Halloween, let's try and get it out of the unlucky number.

But 13 is my lucky number

But if we stay stuck on thirteen, other people's lucky numbers never get to exist. 'Tis unfair.

Tis? Charles Dickens would be proud 

"'tis," aka a contraction of "It" and "Is." Aka a contraction I use far too much. Obviously, only the best writers overuse "'tis," bwah ha ha. Although... I've never read any Charles Dickens before, so who knows if that is an accurate claim.

Normally I'd expect a contraction to have the words mushed together with the middle parts of the word missing and the apostrophe there. Like... "that is" = "that's."

> it is = i's

... Welp. I think I can see why that doesn't work so well.

"'tis," aka a contraction of "It" and "Is." Aka a contraction I use far too much. Obviously, only the best writers overuse "'tis," bwah ha ha. Although... I've never read any Charles Dickens before, so who knows if that is an accurate claim.

Normally I'd expect a contraction to have the words mushed together with the middle parts of the word missing and the apostrophe there. Like... "that is" = "that's."

> it is = i's

... Welp. I think I can see why that doesn't work so well.

Unfortunately the example used " "that is" = "that's." " it doesn't miss out any letters on the pronoun "that". It seems that the first words normally remain unaffected (these are normally the nouns, pronouns or determiners) where as the second word often looses letters (often conjunctions, verbs or adverbs)

For example:
should have = should've
can not= can't
she is= she's
are not= aren't
he will= he'll
I would= I'd
who are= who're

An exception would be
will not = won't
but interestingly with that "will" is a verb and "not" is an adverb, so I'd say the rule still applies.
That's why nowadays "it's" is the most common form of contraction of "it is".

'tis and 'tisant are common in older writing because they are how people talked, and before the mass standardization of English words were often simply written how they sounded (which is why in many copies of Charles Dickens 'tis is written without the apostrophe).

Fun fact: Knight, Knife and Knob (and any other silent K words) used to be pronounced with the "K".

More modern uses of 'tis are usually in writing, (for example Mark Twain) to connote either: under-education, heavy informality, a strong accent, or because the work is based on the older style.

Anyway... that was fun... I'll just shuffle off now...

*Hannah goes off back to her little nerd corner

Rats, I was going to use the "won't" example, but changed my mind. I should've gone with my first thought! XD

Another fun fact: "ghost" didn't always have an "h" in it. Then the printing press was invented and (due to how the printers of the bible wrote "ghost" with a "gh-") the idea of "ghost" with an "h" was popularized.

(I don't have any sources right now but I'll go look it up. I'm probably remembering things wrong. Who knows, this might be an untrue myth about printers' influence).

Yay. Language is fun.

I'm kinda curious -- have you taken linguistics papers or do you just like language? Also, how do you do the "@Person person" thing?

Rats, I was going to use the "won't" example, but changed my mind. I should've gone with my first thought! XD

Another fun fact: "ghost" didn't always have an "h" in it. Then the printing press was invented and (due to how the printers of the bible wrote "ghost" with a "gh-") the idea of "ghost" with an "h" was popularized.

(I don't have any sources right now but I'll go look it up. I'm probably remembering things wrong. Who knows, this might be an untrue myth about printers' influence).

Yay. Language is fun.

I'm kinda curious -- have you taken linguistics papers or do you just like language? Also, how do you do the "@Person person" thing?

You just type @Elbbsas or rather @<instert usernamename here> like right there you accidentally tagged someone called Person, who it turns out is a user that exists  http://www.wintreath.com/index.php?part=profile&id=1134

If you want the BB command it's:

Code: [Select]

[member=<member number>]username[/member] though you shouldn't need that.

Also the Printing-Press thing is the same reason that we have "the" and "double-u" W are a thing:
it's not a valid source but here is a fun video about it:-

Video (from a really good series)

And I have read some linguistics papers but not very many, I am interested in it but I am not studying it thoroughly... though I got a C for my High School (A-Level) English. :P
Have you yourself?

Video (from a really good series)

yay tom scott

He's said he's no longer making these anymore :( (though he did make one in the High Arctic) though he did recommend this channel.
https://www.youtube.com/user/thelingspace