CHAT: Contractions (was Re: Re: Austin, Utopia, Uglossia,and Bats.)

Eric Christopherson wrote:
> Hey everyone. What should be the proper spelling of /lIl/, the contraction
> of <little>? I most often see it as <li'l>, but that annoys me since the
> original word doesn't end in <l>.
Well, I think that {li'le} would look like /lajl/

> Same with <'n> (/@n/) for <and>... I think
> it should be <'n'> but the two apostrophes look clumsy right near each
> other. What do you think?
Probably because it's a contraction of /&n/, which in turn is a
contraction of /&nd/, so that's why it's {'n} and not {n'}, {'n'} DOES
occur, but I think people like to avoid all those apostrophes, as in
{won't}, not {wo'n't} or {shan't} not {sha'n't}

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