'Leggins' for 'leggings'

[thefourthbeatle]

From another thread: "Men and women in skinny jeans, black leggins or any leggins". How could anyone go through school in Great Britain and come up with that? (Strikes me as native British from their posts). Any supposed 'thought' behind the spelling seems to be that the intended term (which I don't care for either) derives from something like 'leg ins'.

I assume they habitually drop the g of ‘ing’ and write as they pronounce? eg ‘I was diggin’ about in my wardrobe lookin’ for my favourite black leggins’ etc.

Well, I guess you do put your legs in...

Our DS's school's official uniform list - also displayed on their website - says that girls can wear 'black sports leggins'; and it has done for at least a year.

This is a school - where they teach children English.

Posting on an online forum is an informal space, often on a phone. I hardly think it’s means someone hasn’t learned anything from school and is incapable of adding the ‘g’ on the end when appropriate.

I would actually have to complain about this - so poor.

I probably should; but it seems very common in schools that the staff either don't know or don't care about proper language use. Some of the letters they email out leave something to be desired too.

I still recall when he started Reception, when they had little displays in the centre of each table showing a drawing of two cartoon worms of differing lengths, labelled 'longest' and 'shortest'.

The problem is that, if you complain these days, you risk becoming 'that parent' - and probably assumed to be wrong anyway, because they're the teacher and you aren't.

That’s a normal regional pronunciation. It’s people writing as they speak.

That’s the problem. Not the regional accent - the spelling. After many years of education, are we saying adult phonics is ok?

Typos aside how/why does an educated person who knows that words ending in ing end in ing decide to dispense with the g when typing

Surely it's much more effort do spell something wrongly, you'd have to make a conscious decision and stop your muscle memory from typing all the letters

I don't buy that at all

Shocking!

Beth Ridgesomething on Sky News is a graduate and she doesn't sound the 'g' when she speaks. Nor does Pritty Patel. Presumably they belong to the huntin', shootin' and fishin' brigade. It's all an affectation and laziness and very poor show.

But they should be able to spell it correctly however they say it and I'm sure those two do.

This is a really noticeable one in daily speech though
So I wouldn’t be surprised if people actually think that’s the spelling

An unintended consequence of over reliance on phonics then.

I think a lot of people think that is what they are actually called.

A very obvious consequence, but people get upset when you say that here.

Are most posters typing or dictating?

I agree. I hate it though, sets my teeth on edge!

When my DD was little she’d developed a habit of dropping her ‘g’s and we’d always correct her. On holiday she made friends with a girl called Erin and insisted on calling her “Ering” 😂 but my job was done!

I’ve never heard anyone call them legging, how can anyone think that’s correct?

‘Have uk cities really became this unsafe?’ 🫣

Similarly, when my husband was a little boy, he referred to his grandfather (Ed) as “Grandpa Head” because he assumed that other people were dropping an H!

But presumably they know, as you do, to add the apostrophe if they want to transcribe their pronunciation.

Interesting question, based purely on my own experience I'd say typing, seems like most people who can would do it that way

That thread was truly bizarre for many reasons, the repeated use of ‘leggins’ by many posters being one of them. there was so much back and forth between just a few posters that I almost wondered if someone was sock puppeting…

Stockin puppetin?