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

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I always try to spell it as alright but, if I am writing it on the computer rather than by hand, the spell checker complains. And, on checking, so does my 1969 Cassell's English Dictionary - so even if it is alright now, it wasn't alright then...

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

The Cambridge Guide to English Usage (which I invested in after my tangle with a certain archive) says that the controversy over alright is emotional rather than linguistic or logical, and points out that alright conveys a range of meanings that all right doesn't, because all right implies 'correct', whereas alright can imply, for example, 'barely tolerable'. It concludes that 'alright is there to be used without any second thoughts'.

I've always thought that whatever happens between speech marks is pretty much up to the writer -- conveying speech patterns, and all -- but, of course, my favourite archive disagrees!

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

I always use 'all right'. 'Alright' seems more slangy; it wouldn't get past an editor if I used it in a book.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

My inclination is to write alright in modern fics especially, but my beta used to correct them all to 'all right' and they know more about grammar than me so I stuck with that. Maybe it depends on whether it's speech or narration?

[smwright.livejournal.com]

Bleh! All right is correct. I do understand that 'alright' has made its way into the popular vernacular (particularly the American), but I never use it and am annoyed when I see it.

Sorry. I know you were particularly looking for British input.

[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...