By DAN LANGFORD

Amongst the most common spoken Southern contractions are those involving helping verbs.  We might write “I am going to recommend that you stop right now,” but that’s an awful mouthful to say.  What we’d generally say, unless making a formal speech, is something more like “I’m'o recommend that you stop right now.”  I’m not sure how to punctuate it in writing, but I suspect most of us say it, as I’ve heard it from all classes of folks all my life.  Now I’m'o explain another common one.

We use “can” as a helping verb generally meaning ability and/or willingness to do something, as in “I can take care of that for you.”  What we’d probably say is “I’gn,” as in “I’gn handle that.”  It pretty well works no matter what the pronoun — “you’gn borrow the car tonight,” “he’gn hold his breath for three minutes,” “we’gn go out to eat tomorrow night,” and “they’gn just kiss my…..” — you get the picture.

I’m open to suggestions as to how and spell these common contractions, for we ought to be able to reduce these nuances of Southern speech into writing in the clearest way possible.   You’gn just post a comment with any suggestions you might have.  I’m'o be waiting with great anticipation.