Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > World Forums > World
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 09-14-2014, 05:45 AM
 
Location: Iowa, Heartland of Murica
3,425 posts, read 6,306,909 times
Reputation: 3446

Advertisements

What are some example of shortened spoken words in your country/language? Here in the USA, one that I find hilarious and it is used mainly by African-Americans is the word "biniz"- short for business.

Ex: Gotta take care of some biniz

It sounds even funnier when they say "Nun yo biniz" - None of your business


Interestingly enough, I see the same exact pattern in Brazilian Portuguese and similarly, these contractions seem to be used more often by people who are less educated and poorer

Ne' is a contraction for "Nao e'?" which means "Isnt it?"

Similarly, In England, some people use the word "innit" to mean "Isn't it?"
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 09-14-2014, 06:19 AM
 
Location: Hong Kong / Vienna
4,491 posts, read 6,341,443 times
Reputation: 3986
The Bavarian dialect is full of those shortened words.

An example:

bav.: Nochdem i einkaft hob, hot mi'd Kassiererin g'frogt: "Woin'S a Sackl dazua?"
ger.: Nachdem ich meine Einkäufe erledigt hatte, fragte mich die Kassiererin: "Wollen Sie eine Einkauftüte dazu?".

Certain words get shortened (some get a bit longer "dazu" > "dazua"), some words get replaced all together and the grammatical structure is a bit twisted. First version is only used in conversations.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2014, 07:30 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,874 posts, read 37,997,315 times
Reputation: 11640
Canadian (Quebec) French is full of these types of shortcuts, which are often the source of comments about European francophones sometimes having difficulty understanding us.

Examples:

Quessé = qu'est-ce que c'est

Pantoute = pas du tout

Shu (shuis) = je suis
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2014, 08:10 AM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
16,588 posts, read 27,377,194 times
Reputation: 9059
On the US west coast, business is frequently shortened just to "biz" and is used by most young people, not just blacks but it tends to be a young person thing.

Among blacks though, there are a lot of southern phrases still in use. One that is shortened and used by most blacks who speak African-American Vernacular English is "Fidna" which is a shortened version of the phrase "Fixing to". Example; "I'm fidna go home"
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2014, 01:02 PM
 
351 posts, read 499,662 times
Reputation: 446
In English, is "legit" and "swag" more common than "legitimate" and "swagger"?
And in many pop and rap songs: "I'mma" instead of "I'm gonna" which itself is a shortened version of "I'm going to"
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-14-2014, 02:24 PM
 
14,767 posts, read 17,106,791 times
Reputation: 20658
Australians will shorten any word/name they can.

Convo, biz, bizzo, footy, barbie, sunnies, sanga, maccas

Translated

Conversation, business, football, barbecue, sunglasses, sandwich, mc donalds
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-15-2014, 01:32 PM
 
Location: Duluth, Minnesota, USA
7,639 posts, read 18,116,906 times
Reputation: 6913
What is that?
What's that?
Wassa'?

The ' signifies a glottal stop.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-15-2014, 01:34 PM
 
Location: Duluth, Minnesota, USA
7,639 posts, read 18,116,906 times
Reputation: 6913
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thirty All View Post
In English, is "legit" and "swag" more common than "legitimate" and "swagger"?
And in many pop and rap songs: "I'mma" instead of "I'm gonna" which itself is a shortened version of "I'm going to"
LOL.

Most people don't use the word "swagger" in daily conversation. Perhaps frat bros.

"I'mma" is common.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-15-2014, 01:47 PM
 
Location: The Downunderverse
598 posts, read 955,593 times
Reputation: 518
In Australia one of my favourites is "carn" (pronounced cahn) which means come on, you hear it a lot at football games.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-15-2014, 04:42 PM
 
Location: Finland
24,128 posts, read 24,792,350 times
Reputation: 11103
It would take a week if I would write down the words which are shortened in spoken Finnish. Some dialects are very heavy in this, but even standard spoken Finnish probably shortens 30-40% of all words existing.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > World Forums > World

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:39 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top