Regional speech patterns or just laziness?

[Tree-Hugger]

69. I only notice

Imma. I haven't noticed your other examples. I use Imma all the time. I use it in more relaxed, casual settings...never in professional or formal settings.

Thanks for this thread. It's fascinating. I love regional accents and learning about them.

I am from Philadelphia (Fluff'ya), which has quite an accent....sometimes there is a difference between neighborhoods. Our o's are weird. Our A's are weird. We add syllables. Acme = ac-a-me. Mine = mayan. We taken syllables away. Kitten = ki'in. Crayon = crown. Then we have the WTF's such as Wooder for water. Incidentally, I find any pronunciation of water other than "wooder" to be grating to my ears. The rest of this nation pronounces it incorrectly. I am very intrigued by the evolution of accents and where they originate. I think the Philly accent has fancy Southern roots. My own accent is a hybrid of Philly and Staten Island, picked up from my mom. People from Philly think I'm from New York. People in New York say I sound Southern. lol

To your point.....Imma has been used around here for ages. Another that I can think of is "Ci" (hard c, rhymes with eye) instead of "can I?." Ci have a sandwich? And there's "yous" instead of "all of you" or "you two."

Thanks for the thread.