Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
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from front page…
Spotted in the wild:
bq:
‘My’ appears to be substituted not only for “might” but perhaps is less ‘eggcorn’ as typographical error, the omission of ‘a’ for one, as in the following:
While my’s correlation with might’s / mahy t / is definitely a case for a probable misinterpretation of the word used, I do believe that it’s valid to use may (and arguably better to do so in the examples) and these may seriously simply be cases of letter omission.
I don’t guess it’s a big deal, people very well may incorrectly use my instead of might, but it’s worth taking note of.
robf
Last edited by robeph (2008-03-31 01:25:44)
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I’m pretty sure this one (or some variant thereof) has been discussed before, but I couldn’t find it using the search engine.
I think verbally people sort of drop the T sound and say “my’s well” instead of might as well, and perhaps that has been transferred to the way people spell it (ear spelling?). I doubt they consciously think “my” (as a possessive) has anything to do with the “as well” part. There doesn’t seem to be a new imagery that comes out of the phrase.
Feeling quite combobulated.
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It’s actually in the Database, though I’m not sure it should be: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/964/my/
Arnold Zwicky’s note there makes it clear that his is somewhat questionable as an eggcorn. He doesn’t consider robeph’s suggestion that letter-omission my be at work here—it’s a good point.
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