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I've noticed a trend among "younger people" to shorten words by simply cutting the ending off.

For example, instead of inspiration they might say something like inspiraysh.

What is the proper way (if there is one) of spelling such shortened words?

Edit: It seems to me that the natural thing to do would be removing the last few letters: i.e. the spelling inspiraysh would make perfect sense to me if the original word was inspirayshon. But in case of inspiration this is not an option, since it would alter the pronunciation.

tchrist
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Dejan Govc
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    They're probably saying inspire-ish. The suffix -ish means of or relating to. Like girlish, childish. – JLG Mar 13 '13 at 19:29
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    @JLG No, if it's a shortened noun I think it isn't -ish (an adjective) –  Mar 13 '13 at 19:33
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    I think he means like "vacay" for vacation. – Kit Z. Fox Mar 13 '13 at 19:34
  • @KitFox: By extension, then, if a "-tion" word is shortened by saying the leading "sh" in place of -tion or -tious, how would you spell it? I don't know if I have 'nuff ambish to answer this q (although it seems pretty straightforward when the vowel sound is short). – J.R. Mar 13 '13 at 19:39
  • @KitFox Or "Soshe" for "Soc" in The Outsiders. I kept pronouncing it "sock" because I didn't feel like it was right. – Joe Z. Mar 13 '13 at 19:39
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    *"delish"* for *"delicous"* is an example I'm familiar with - it seems to be simply representing the sound (sh) without regard for the original word's spelling. – Kristina Lopez Mar 13 '13 at 20:32
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    It is ironic that you should ask for a proper way to do something that is itself an improperly done thing: there can be no correct answer here. – tchrist Mar 13 '13 at 20:54
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    Adding to Joe's and Kristina's examples, here's a closely related question: How do I spell the truncation 'Cas', as in 'Sports Casual/Sports Cas'? – RegDwigнt Mar 13 '13 at 21:03
  • @tchrist: That's why I said "if there is one". Sometimes when something improper like this is used a lot, it becomes "standardized". Hence, the question. Also, it can be argued that all language begins as improper and only later certain forms become standardized by consistent use. – Dejan Govc Mar 13 '13 at 21:15
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    The correct way to write it is /ɪnspə'reʃ/, with a stressed final syllable. Of course, there's no unambiguous way to spell /reʃ/ in English orthography, so every group that wants to develops their own ingroupy way to do it. – John Lawler Mar 14 '13 at 00:19
  • Short answer: DON'T Longer answer: Why should every vocal utterance be rendered in writing? Some "younger people" make all sorts of noises that ought not appear in print. It will only encourage them! – Fortiter Mar 14 '13 at 01:18
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    But anything anyone says may need to be represented in print. If we want to represent these "shortenings," then, I believe the only reasonable way to do it is to redesign the spelling of the truncated ending, as in Kristina Lopez's example above, to be most likely to be read in such a way as to represent the sound that the speaker is using. @RegDwighт, then, I think your example might well be spelled "cazh." – John M. Landsberg Mar 14 '13 at 02:40
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    To someone from Kiritimati (originally Christmas Island) in Kiribati (originally Gilberts), the obvious spelling would be inspirati or perhaps intibirati – Henry Sep 14 '16 at 07:49

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If it's not a standard word, there's no standard way to spell it. I would spell it as it sounds (inspiraysh) because just chopping off letters would be confusing. (The usual caveats about not using it at all in a formal context and explaining it if necessary apply, but if I'd already considered that and decided I really did want to use this bit of slang, I would spell it exactly as it's pronounced.)

Kelly Tessena Keck
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