Question for the flist-mind

[thismaz]

Dear flist,

I think, for once, this is a question directed more towards the Brits on my flist.

The word 'alright'.

Is that an acceptable spelling?

Or would you always spell it as two words?

Would you feel differently, depending on whether you were writing narrative or dialogue?

Any and all opinion welcome.

*hugs wonderful flist-mind*

Comments

[quinara]

I don't really have a problem with the idea of 'alright' as a compound, but I've never been able to actually read it so it gets pronounced right in my head, so it's never been a spelling I've used and it makes me pause and wrinkle my nose when I come across it. Though I'm not sure how much I actually do come across it, apart from in The Damned's song 'I Feel Alright', which is a favourite track of mine and not something that could be spelt any other way...

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting, because until I saw this comment I was thinking it was a North American/British thing.

So, to quote the wombat's example, you would spell the answer to the question, 'will you buy some milk?' as 'All right'?
Because I can't make those two words make sense, in that context.

apart from in The Damned's song 'I Feel Alright', which [is] not something that could be spelt any other way
Actually, from the point of view of making sense, I could see that split into two words.

[quinara]

Well, I write out 'all right' every time Spike uses it! And would use it as an answer to the milk question, yeah. I've been thinking about Wombat's distinction, actually, and have a feeling that I don't have a sense of any primary, literal meaning of 'all right', so the phrase is always the 'alright' sense of the phrase. 'All right' to me basically means 'yeah' or 'OK' or 'fine' - or 'how are you' (when it's got a question mark, obviously). I could maybe swap in 'alright' when it's specifically the greeting sort of 'all right' where the expected response is just another 'alright/all right' rather than any real information (which I'm really bad at responding to properly but recognise when it's used), but otherwise I don't see it in my head. 'Is everything all right?', for example, isn't a tautology to me - and 'is everything alright?' doesn't make sense.

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

Do you remember when I did a language post that included a rant about characters not being able to help themselves, all the time? You and Brutti both (very politely) cursed me for it. You get your revenge, now. I am going to be hyper-aware of alright/all right, in future. *g*

[quinara]

Hee, just about! I have a feeling there might be some sort of North/South or generational thing going on, only because I think yoofy London people are the most likely to use 'all right?' as a greeting, and generally stick in 'all right' anywhere it can go. Although I only think that because I'm trying to back up my convoluted idea that the main reason I spell it 'all right' is because of how ubiquitous the meaningless version is in my life...

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

I based my guess about generational influence on a sample of three *g* Not exactly a size that would normally be judged suitable for extrapolation to the entire population. I am happier with wombat's North/South suggestion.