I could say any of ðæts, æts, ts, or s

But I wouldn't be equally likely to write things corresponding to all of those.

I'd be more likely to write "S'pretty good" than "'ts pretty good" (??) or such, for example.

It doesn't really matter whether that t is there.

Also, I suppose I'd reduce the vowel too, if it were present.

Yeah, I don't think I'd transcribe the t if I reduced it to /ts/

It's really interesting to me how some reductions are more likely to be expressed in spelling than others.

I don't really know of any rules.

Well, there are probably patterns to be found.

In linguistics, "rules" are generally just observations of patterns, written down.

There might be too much variability for us to call the patterns we find "rules" in this particular case, but I'm sure patterns could be found nonetheless

literalminded.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/…

I like possessive that's

> the only one [ that’s title has been released ]

It's non-standard. It bothers some people.

You probably shouldn't use it.

But I like it. :-)

It's not part of my idiolect, so I never use it, even informally.

But I know someone who says it.

That's happening in Japanese, too. Of course, Japanese is adopting a lot of English vocabulary wholesale, but it influences it in other ways--certain bits of grammar, certain constructions have been influenced by English as well

Of course, Japanese changes in other ways, too.

I think a lot of language learners have to cope with short-term language change to some extent because educational materials are often fairly dated

Though with the internet, that may be less true than it used to be

Li'l bit. Not a lot. Little changes add up over time

You'll notice writing from a hundred years ago has a distinct feel--it feels old, even when it's mostly using words and grammar we use today

Well, there are a lot of small cues that add up. Things like to-day

> Mr. Harmsworth entered a printing office twenty years ago as office-boy, and today owns thirty periodicals besides The Mail. Upon a friendly challenge from Mr. Pulitzer of The New York World, the English journalist issued the first number of The World for the new century in the ideal form. The size of the page was reduced to four columns and the general make-up was similar in appearance to that of one of the weekly magazines.

Also, "the new century" :-)

You can guess when this was written.

Oh, I thought the new century might be a hint. It's from 1901.

> Current news was presented in condensed and tabulated form, of which the editor says: "The world enters today upon the twentieth or time-saving century. I claim that by my system of condensed or tabloid journalism hundreds of working hours can be saved each year." ["The Twentieth Century Newspaper," in "The Social Gospel," February 1901]

Yeah. I've never tried to do this in a rigorous fashion

When I say I notice these things, it's purely anecdotal and open to confirmation bias

Rigor takes effort. I'm lazy. :-)