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You know that a lot of words can be abbreviated like:
You know -> y'know
About -> 'bout
Going to -> gonna
and much more

To be honest, I found one interesting abbreviation:
Of course -> 'Course.
But you see, when I searched the internet I didn't find a single article that confirms that this form is accepted unlike the others. And when I tried to search its usage in literatures, like no one using them.
But still, it appears a lot in a not-so-formal-and-professional work. So what's up with this abbreviation, is it allowed? Am I allowed to abbreviate words that I feel like doing? You know, like in dialogues inside a novel.

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    In dialogue in a novel, you can write speech in any way you consider to be a natural representation of how that character would talk in real life. Contractions don't have to be 'officially accepted'.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Feb 1, 2022 at 11:37
  • @KateBunting I see. Thanks for answering. Guess I'm free to do anything I like in dialogue, huh... Still, better avoid what's officially accepted as much as possible. Anyway, I see you a lot in answering tons of my questions and clearing my doubt, and I appreciate that.
    – Gerry Giovan
    Commented Feb 1, 2022 at 12:01
  • 'Couple of bacon rolls tonight. Course they were in batter.' [Dario Valente on Twitter] / No apostrophe, the modern trend. //// I'd expect Victorian novels (and retro works) to use such true-to-life abbreviations.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Feb 1, 2022 at 12:29
  • I didn't advise you to avoid contractions that are 'officially accepted', I said you didn't have to limit yourself to those.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Feb 1, 2022 at 13:28
  • Wiktionary lists it as a known contraction: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%27course
    – dubious
    Commented Feb 1, 2022 at 13:34

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The abbreviation is attested. The Oxford English Dictionary lists it under "'course, adv.":

colloquial.

= 'of course' (see COURSE n. 37c).

The form is colloquial, which means that it tends to be used in less formal discourse, either directly (a text conversation, Twitter) or as recorded spoken dialogue. It would appear odd in formal writing; when I searched "course I will" and "course they were" in the Corpus of Contemporary American English, virtually all the results were the unabbreviated "of course." The form is hard to find via search engines because "of course" and other uses of "course" ("what course are you taking?") are very common. Nonetheless, you can find it in the wild, as Edwin Ashworth did in the comments:

Couple of bacon rolls tonight. Course they were in batter. (Dario Valente, Twitter)

Also, sometimes the apostrophe appears with the form; other times, the apostrophe is omitted:

[omitted] 1904 G. S. Porter Freckles xvi. 326 "I bet you it's a marked tree!" "Course it is!" cried the Angel.

[included] 1967 O. Norton Now lying Dead iv. 58 'Course, he might go off. He does sometimes.

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    The OED's not all bad.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Feb 1, 2022 at 15:33

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