Evanitious Triglot Newbie France Joined 4464 days ago 36 posts - 39 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1, Italian
| Message 1 of 21 07 August 2015 at 6:35pm | IP Logged |
Hi everyone,
I noticed this in several movies, when people say "I'm going to" very fast, it sounds kinda
like "I'm in a" or something like : "I'm on a help you".
I'm pretty sure they don't say "gonna", but that is what they mean.
So I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me and tell me what they exactly say, because
I tried to listen many times and I still don't know what they exactly say.. "I'm in a go
to.." or "I'm on a go to .."
Or maybe they eat the first letter "g" => I'm onna go to the movies ?
Have a nice day :)
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learnkorean1k Newbie United States Joined 3601 days ago 1 posts - 4 votes Studies: Korean
| Message 2 of 21 07 August 2015 at 9:22pm | IP Logged |
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ima << maybe that
ima
An astonishing elision of the phrase "I am going to," making it the first and only 'triple elision' in the entire English language.
Notice the use of three distinct elisions to turn a four word phrase into a three letter word: "I am going to" > "I'm going to" > "I'm gonna" > "ima."
Awesome.
"Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and ima let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!"
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Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3997 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German
| Message 3 of 21 07 August 2015 at 10:22pm | IP Logged |
I suspect that many languages devolve into "sloppy" speech.
What I arrived in Québec so many years ago, it took me a little while to understand what sounded to me like "uh'mn'né", which is a rapidly pronounced contraction of "un moment donné". At first, I was a little taken aback; however, upon reflection, I realized that (we) English speakers reduce "I do not know" to "I'd_no" or simply "d'no" for which the Québécois equivalent is "Je ne sais pas" reduced to "sh'pa".
Acquiring these poor speech habits is quite easy and there is a great temptation to do so, particularly if one wishes to sound "authentic". However, discarding them is quite another matter!
For your amusement and edification, have a look/listen at this YouTube video:
Learn the Cockney accent with Jason Stratham
Edited by Speakeasy on 07 August 2015 at 10:24pm
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AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4583 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 4 of 21 08 August 2015 at 3:32pm | IP Logged |
I agree that ima's what was being talked about in the original post. I associate it strongly with African American English, though its use
seems to be spreading. In fact I myself use it often, but it still feels foreign, the same as when I use "y'all".
Speakeasy wrote:
English speakers reduce "I do not know" to "I'd_no" or simply "d'no" |
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It's also common to reduce it to just shwas. This phrase has such a distinctive intonation pattern that all natives get what
you're saying as long as you retain the intonation.
Edited by AlexTG on 08 August 2015 at 3:40pm
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Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6542 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 5 of 21 08 August 2015 at 4:21pm | IP Logged |
My British friends also use it. More commonly spelt as Imma though.
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AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4583 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 6 of 21 08 August 2015 at 4:35pm | IP Logged |
Evanitious wrote:
Or maybe they eat the first letter "g" => I'm onna go to the movies ? |
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This is common as well now I think about it, replacing the 'g' with either with a glottal stop or getting rid of it completly and replacing
the 'o' with a schwa. It also often turns into "mna".
Edited by AlexTG on 08 August 2015 at 4:38pm
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James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5320 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French
| Message 7 of 21 10 August 2015 at 12:53am | IP Logged |
In case it is not already obvious to non-native English speakers... these are things that are only spoken and you should not use in written English.
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Evanitious Triglot Newbie France Joined 4464 days ago 36 posts - 39 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1, Italian
| Message 8 of 21 15 August 2015 at 8:45pm | IP Logged |
Thanks, finally I get it :D
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