Is the English “cuz” (because) becoming a clitic?

By: | Post date: 2016-11-18 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

Not yet in my speech, but you’re pointing out something interesting.

If you pronounce them as a single word, cuzall, cuzawesome, yeah, that’s a proclitic, and that’s grammaticalisation. I don’t.

I do pronounce ’cause as a single syllable often, many do. That’s a reduction, but I think it’s still independently stressed for me, and it’s certainly with a full vowel: coz /kɔz/ (Australian English), not cuz /kəz/. If you’re doing it as a schwa, that’s consistent with more extensive reduction of the word.

If you don’t mind: what’s your English dialect?

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