Regional speech patterns or just laziness? [View all]
While it's always been fairly common to use elision while speaking to simplify speech, it seems to be epidemic these days. I'm hearing those omissions of syllables and even whole words more and more from everyone, including media news readers and in advertising. At one time, the examples below seemed to me to be regional speech patterns, I'm beginning to wonder if they're not evolving into almost universal speech patterns. I can't imagine what a new English speaker makes of things like:
I'ma, I'muna, Ahmo - "I'm going to" elided variants, with the last one being clearly regional. I heard the I'ma one yesterday in a radio ad, in the line "I'ma give you the phone number in a second."
Presen'ited States - This elided version of "President of the United States" is pretty extreme, but I haven't heard anything but this from news readers, pundits and others for a long time.
Constitution'ited States - Similar to the above, but this time a severe elision of "Constitution of the United States."
Who has other examples of or thoughts on this speech trend?
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