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Linguists - Missing out the end of a word e.g bein'

Hello linguistic folk. I'm currently finishing my A2 coursework for English Language and I'm analysing features in dialect/accent. I want to point out the speaker has missed out the 'g' on the end of words like "being" and "going" but I have no idea what the word is for this.. help? Thanks :smile:

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Reply 1

hannah_dru

Wondering if it can be classed as a glottal stop.

Reply 2

DuncanMono

It's omission, a gluttol stop is the sound you make when you drop the 't' from water

Reply 3

chlobofro

I'm thinking Omission possibly.. I'll just stick that in and follow it up with my teacher. >.<

Reply 4

hannah_dru

Original post by DuncanMono

It's omission, a gluttol stop is the sound you make when you drop the 't' from water

That's true but this source also talks about other sounds.

Reply 5

ChopinNocturne

Original post by chlobofro

I'm thinking Omission possibly.. I'll just stick that in and follow it up with my teacher. >.<

I'd say omission too, because "the omission of final consonants in words such as "being" and "going"" seems the most logical way of expressing it in the context of a sentence.

Reply 6

Emmargh

It's omission. However, I'm not too sure if there's another word for missing something out at the end (and one for the beginning) I shall have a check.

I think it's more to do with children's acquisition though. Depends who you're analysing.

Reply 7

Arekkusu

It can't be a glottal stop because /n/ is a nasal so still needs airflow. It's allophony. /ng/ is one phoneme but it's not being omitted, it's being replaced by /n/ or even /m/ if being is sentence-final. Allophony is changing the phoneme but the word stays unambiguous (unlike, say, tongs and thongs)

Elision?

Omission, but you could also refer to it as contraction.

Reply 10

whatsername2009

I'd call it phonemic substitution.

Reply 11

Einheri

Original post by whatsername2009

I'd call it phonemic substitution.

Not really, what is it being substituted for? It's just being removed.

Reply 12

mehhhw/e

Original post by Einheri

Omission, but you could also refer to it as contraction.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but contractions are shortening of words, i.e it is = it's - which is entirely different to what the OP is talking about.

Reply 13

Einheri

Original post by mehhhw/e

Correct me if I'm wrong, but contractions are shortening of words, i.e it is = it's - which is entirely different to what the OP is talking about.

Well, bein' is shortened. I might be wrong, but I was under the impression this would be considered a contraction also.

Reply 14

Nocturna

I was going to go for final consonant deletion but found this (I may be postgrad, but Wikipedia's still king for quick information and looking for ideas and references).

G-dropping

G-dropping is a popular name for the substitution of /?n/ or /?n/ (spelt -in’, -en) for /??/ or /i?/ (spelt -ing) in the English present participle and gerund due to the orthographic changes. Except in dialects which do not show NG coalescence, no sound is actually dropped; a different one is simply used (the alveolar nasal instead of the velar nasal).

This is an old substitution which derives from the generalisation of what were once two different morphemes in Old English: the present participle -ende and the gerund -inge. The orthography of the merged form, -ing, reflects a derivation from the Old English gerund, but the /?n/ pronunciation is also an old one. (The use of a colloquial pronunciation which actually derives from a different word from the standard is not restricted to this example. For instance, ’em or em, a colloquial form of them, derives from Old English him of the same meaning, whereas them was a borrowing from Old Norse þeim.)

It is currently a feature of colloquial and non-standard speech of all regions, and stereotypically of Cockney, Southern American English and African American Vernacular English. Historically, it has also been used by members of the educated upper-class, as reflected by the phrase huntin’, fishin’ and shootin’. That this pronunciation was once regarded as standard can also be seen from old rhymes, as for example, in this couplet from John Gay's 1732 pastoral, Acis and Galatea, set to music by Handel:

Shepherd, what art thou pursuing,
Heedless running to thy ruin?

Which was presumably pronounced "shepherd, what art thou pursuin', heedless runnin' to thy ruin" although this would sound very odd in an opera today. Such a rhyme would today be appropriate only in a comic context.

In the poetry of Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), participles consistently rhyme with words in [?n]:

But Weston has a new-cast gown
On Sundays to be fine in,
And, if she can but win a crown,
'Twill just new dye the lining.

The pronunciation with [??] only became standard in the nineteenth century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_consonants

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 15

merkatron

I think the answer's probably in that Wikipedia link. There was a discussion about this between some linguists and A level Lang teachers recently and IIRC it comes down to the difference between the ng and n sounds. When you say a word like being or seeing (in most accents) you're unlikely to blend three separate phonemes i-n-g (with a hard g sound like in gate or gut). I'm crap at IPA but the ng has its own symbol so it represents an actual sound of its own.

If you're talking about the phonology, as the ng and n are different sounds it's a form of substitution (swapping ing for in) or g-dropping as it (confusingly) gets called.

If you're talking about orthography and how you'd write these, you could probably call it omission.

Reply 16

TheSophistory

Original post by chlobofro

You all sound very much in the know, so does anyone know the technical term for missing out 'unnessary' words in a sentence so that it's not grammatically correct? E.g. Went to school today. Hate maths. etc... English lit coursework :s-smilie:

Sorry for bumping the thread... :colondollar:

Reply 17

LittleGee

I am probably wrong and way off track but isnt the answer to the original question just called clipping?
My eng lang A Level was a few years ago ha ha x