The Alright All Right Dilemma
Sep. 7th, 2012 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hells_half_acreI have a problem with the words "all right" or the word "alright" depending on the day.
My problem is that it causes one of those...conflict thingies in my head.
1. I believe in the evolution of language. I believe that "alright" should be a word and that is how it should be spelled. I think it reflects how people SAY "all right" - as one word, not two.
2. I really really hate it when I spell things wrong or have gross grammatical errors.
So, I never know when I'm writing whether I should write "alright" even though I know that it's blatantly wrong, because I want to encourage it to be officially accepted as the standard spelling - or if I should be writing "all right" because that is the proper thing to do, and I have a Masters, damn it!
The only way I have solved this so far is to avoid the words "all right/alright" like the plague and use "okay" instead or some other word. Of course, for those who read my Demented'verse, you'll probably have noticed that I use "alright" all the time in it - a fact that actually makes my fingers itch when I read it. That being said, when I read "all right" in other people's fics, I don't like it, I want them to use "alright."
Anyway, I don't know what to do about this problem....and somehow I doubt this keeps other people up at night.
My problem is that it causes one of those...conflict thingies in my head.
1. I believe in the evolution of language. I believe that "alright" should be a word and that is how it should be spelled. I think it reflects how people SAY "all right" - as one word, not two.
2. I really really hate it when I spell things wrong or have gross grammatical errors.
So, I never know when I'm writing whether I should write "alright" even though I know that it's blatantly wrong, because I want to encourage it to be officially accepted as the standard spelling - or if I should be writing "all right" because that is the proper thing to do, and I have a Masters, damn it!
The only way I have solved this so far is to avoid the words "all right/alright" like the plague and use "okay" instead or some other word. Of course, for those who read my Demented'verse, you'll probably have noticed that I use "alright" all the time in it - a fact that actually makes my fingers itch when I read it. That being said, when I read "all right" in other people's fics, I don't like it, I want them to use "alright."
Anyway, I don't know what to do about this problem....and somehow I doubt this keeps other people up at night.
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Date: 2012-09-08 06:47 pm (UTC)Anyway, like percysowner pointed out, traditionalists are against "alright" but it will probably be accepted even by them in the next few years. My usage dictionary notes that this has long been the case with "all together" / "altogether," and "all ready" / "already." But those words have been accepted since the Middle Ages, and "alright" is a lot newer.
So at least you're worrying about actual words and not smutty terms like I am! Your master's degree is clearly being put to better use than mine :D
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Date: 2012-09-08 07:18 pm (UTC)Anyway, it sounds like I just have to imagine that I'm living in a future world where "alright" has been around for hundreds of years like "altogether" :P Yay new words! Boo old rules!
So at least you're worrying about actual words and not smutty terms like I am! Your master's degree is clearly being put to better use than mine :D
Haha, I don't know...I think that might be up for debate. ;)