All Right vs Alright

[tinkerdan]

However, 'alright' sounds, as far as I'm aware, the same as 'all right', so the first does not seem to apply. And if the dialogue is being spoken by character A, but the narration is either neutral (not attached to any character) or in the voice of a different PoV character whose spelling is not the same as character A's, why would the dialogue suddenly be written as if character A had taken control of the pen/keyboard?

If it reflects how the character speaks and the narrator fails to include that, then the narrator becomes unreliable in a very large sense because the characters dialogue should always reflect what the character said and not what the narrator wants them to say.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

but it is far from dead and will likely be around until the WWW dies.

Sadly.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Is alright a non standard word? Even the OED say it's not acceptable in informal writing but there isn't a good reason for it.

 

[tinkerdan]

Alright shows up in my Merriam-Webster Universal Encyclopedic Dictionary.
It shows an added Usage note which includes some etymology.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Is alright a non standard word? Even the OED say it's not acceptable in informal writing but there isn't a good reason for it.

I meant formal writing. Surely fiction isn't formal writing?

 

[tinkerdan]

I'm not sure what 'you' mean by formal writing but the Usage note includes that it finds it remains in common use especially in journalistic and business publications. (Probably for economy of words for typesetting.)

 

[Ursa major]

If it reflects how the character speaks and the narrator fails to include that, then the narrator becomes unreliable in a very large sense because the characters dialogue should always reflect what the character said and not what the narrator wants them to say.

But, as I said in my post, 'alright' and 'all right' sound the same, in the sense that a change in spelling does not change how it's said. (One can say them in a different way, if an accent is involved (such as ones where the 't' isn't pronounced), or a particular stress is being placed in one of the syllables, but that, again, applies to both spellings.)

 

[tinkerdan]

Alright you're right so are we all right then?

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I'm not sure what 'you' mean by formal writing but the Usage note includes that it finds it remains in common use especially in journalistic and business publications. (Probably for economy of words for typesetting.)

I suspect journalism, academic writing and business publications is what the OED means they're not that specific.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Oddly, this is one of the flags Word picks up. If I use NZ English as my standard alright is in fact not a word. If I use the Australian English dictionary alright is fine. I usually just get to the end of the draft and correct them all to one or the other. As long as it's consistent I figure.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

If I use NZ English as my standard alright is in fact not a word. If I use the Australian English dictionary alright is fine.

Some website last week claimed Beer was responsible for Austraiiiilyan. no worries.