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This question is a further question regarding my previous thread.(Pronunciation of "I'm going to") Thank you for everyone who answered this question.

I read that saying "I muh-nuh" (eg. I'muh-nuh go to the store.) is very common and normal, especially on the east coast of the US. Some people said that I probably couldn't catch the "g" sound when they were actually saying "I'm gonna", but I am pretty sure people just completely drop the "g" sound when they say it.

Is this occurrence common in other parts of the US too, or is it really just a regional thing? How about in Canada, Australia, Britain, etc?

Thank you again, and I am looking forward to reading your answers.

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  • There is a reason that so many TV newscasters are from the US Midwest -- folks from that region are largely free of the sorts of accents one encounters in New England, New York, the southeast US, etc. And there is a reason why folks from that region tend to be accent-free -- because they (or their parents or grandparents) were taught to speak that way by what one must admit were P-ist teachers. Largely these were immigrants who spoke no English on arrival, so they were fertile ground for the teachings of Messrs Merriam and Webster. And proper pronunciation was important to make it in the US
    – Hot Licks
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 22:20
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    There's no such thing as "accent-free". Anyway, this sort of pronunciation is common around Chicago (where I grew up).
    – user28567
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 22:33
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    Really, if you insist on attempting to discuss American English pronunciation in a print medium, you need to learn at least the phonemic symbols of American English. The phrase you're looking for is /'amənə/; /'aymənə/ occurs, at slower rates, but if you're gonna drop the /g/ in /'ɡənə/, the /y/ in /ay/ "I" usually goes too. This is a common fast speech form for first person present continuous all over the United States and Canada; it's not a local accent. Fast speech forms are universal, though different individuals and speech communities will always have favorites.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Jul 18, 2015 at 17:19
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    If this is an academic question, I (as a physicist) have nothing worthwhile to contribute. If, however, you are asking to decide what pronunciation you, yourself, should use, you will not err if you pronounce all the consonants in this phrase. Many people enunciate clearly -- even on the East Coast -- and those who do may, possibly, be the people you would like to think "What an intelligent, well spoken young man!" when they meet you. (If this sounds patronizing, I did not mean it that way.)
    – ab2
    Commented Jul 18, 2015 at 17:25

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I have a "Canadian accent", colored by learning German and English as first languages, and I typically say 'aɪŋ-ʌ-nʌ, and with close friends, I use 'aɪm-ʌ. I hear the former a lot among friends as well, although many people use OP's variant 'aɪm-ʌ-nʌ.

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    You seem to be using IPA, but your stress marks are in odd places…
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jul 18, 2015 at 17:04
  • You're right! I was careless with my stress marks; in primary school, we learned to put the stress mark after the syllable that was stressed, and I didn't check to see that times have changed. I've edited my answer. Good catch, and thank you!
    – bernz
    Commented Sep 14, 2015 at 14:57

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