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Is "Alright" All Right?
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Look up alright in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.For other uses, see Alright (disambiguation).
Alright is a variant spelling of "all right" usually used in informal contexts.[1]
"Alright" has been in use since the late 19th century; while some authorities still consider it wrong or nonstandard[2][3][4], it frequently appears in print in journalistic and business settings and in informal communication[5]. This is in contrast to the similar words "already" and "altogether", which have been used as compound words and two separate words (all ready and all together) since the Middle Ages.
The word is often used to indicate ambivalence toward something: "the play was alright." It is also used as an exclamation of great pleasure: "We won the championship! Alright!"
"Alright" is commonly used as a greeting in the United Kingdom, as in: "Alright mate?", "Alright (name)?", or just "Alright?"
It's British origins may explain why we use this variant in NZ.
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Anyway, that bit about being in use since lat 19th century is a News Flash to me (but then, a lot of things are).
Interesting. The Associated Press Stylebook, the so called, "journalists bible," has an entry about all right. If you are a journalism or PR student, you are all too familiar with the AP Stylebook!You will notice my use of two words. The entry here says:
all right
Never alright. Hyphenate only if used colloquially as a compound modifier: He is an all-right guy.
Sometimes newspapers have their own style guides, which may explain why you have seen it both ways.
So, when in doubt, use whichever you prefer! Just don't tell any journalism or mass communication professors if you go astray.
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For instance: journalists place book titles in quotation marks (e.g. "Anna Karenina"). Academic sorts (and all of us who picked up our rules from schools) either underline book titles or italicize them (e.g. Anna Karenina).
I think the intent is to drive us crazy (Exit 57 off the Jersey Turnpike). They should convene a big language summit and decide once and for all. No. Check that. A big language summit would lead to WWIII (punctuated by many arguments).
Alas, I know all too many Americans who use "alright" -- including at least one grammar geek of my acquaintance!When Merriam Webster has it, the battle is over.
It would seem to me that to say sentence like "The play was all right" would mean something very different from a sentence like "The play was alright." The first meaning something like it was good. The second meaning it was just okay. Am I alone in this?
(I never knew about the punctuation difference with quotation marks, but what about with in a sentence like this?)?
Agreed, kinda. With the connotation I have attached to the words, if I read that the play was all right, without context to the contrary I'd think that meant it was performed correctly. To me, all right = all correct (as in, her answers were all right). If I read the play was alright, I'd think the writer thought it was okay. Alright = ok or good (as in, don't worry, I'm alright). I've never known it to be hyphenated. Even as a compound modifier, I'd expect it to be merged. That may just be a generation thing.
Hearing whether it's all right or alright is another thing- I can't detect much difference. Actually, most people I hear saying the word(s) leave off the l's, or kind of turn them into a w-ish sound. Some even leave off the t sound at the end and make the i an longer dipthong. Aw'right. Awright. Awrai. Starts sounding like awry. Hee hee. Is that just a dialecticism (Midwest), or have others heard that as well?
Hearing whether it's all right or alright is another thing- I can't detect much difference. Actually, most people I hear saying the word(s) leave off the l's, or kind of turn them into a w-ish sound. Some even leave off the t sound at the end and make the i an longer dipthong. Aw'right. Awright. Awrai. Starts sounding like awry. Hee hee. Is that just a dialecticism (Midwest), or have others heard that as well?
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(Trust me when I say, "I hear walls beginning to crumble.")
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:-) To echo Debbie's excerpt from the Wikipedia article with one from dictionary.com:
From the American Heritage Dictionary, 2006 (under the entry for "all right"):
"Despite the appearance of the form alright in works of such well-known writers as Langston Hughes and James Joyce, the single word spelling has never been accepted as standard. This is peculiar, since similar fusions such as already and altogether have never raised any objections. The difference may lie in the fact that already and altogether became single words back in the Middle Ages, whereas alright has only been around for a little more than a century and was called out by language critics as a misspelling. Consequently, one who uses alright, especially in formal writing, runs the risk that readers may view it as an error or as the willful breaking of convention."
See also the entries for alright
From the American Heritage Dictionary, 2006 (under the entry for "all right"):
"Despite the appearance of the form alright in works of such well-known writers as Langston Hughes and James Joyce, the single word spelling has never been accepted as standard. This is peculiar, since similar fusions such as already and altogether have never raised any objections. The difference may lie in the fact that already and altogether became single words back in the Middle Ages, whereas alright has only been around for a little more than a century and was called out by language critics as a misspelling. Consequently, one who uses alright, especially in formal writing, runs the risk that readers may view it as an error or as the willful breaking of convention."
See also the entries for alright
Mod
Hullooooo!!!! The variant arose in ENGLAND....late 19th century...if it is born in England, it is ENGLISH!!!! Obviously, in the land that won the War of Independence, English is not spoken....American is!
In all my Linguistics classes professors point out language change. Each generation changes the language and makes it their own, partly to distinguish themselves from the former generation which we know they believe is uncool. If people never used "incorrect" English then we would still be speaking some sort of proto-Indo-European. That doesn't mean we should abandon all rules but if a word or spelling becomes wide-spread long enough it is considered a part of the lexicon. I'll look it up in the grand daddy, the OED, and let you know what it has to say.
Okay, the Oxford English Dictionary has it! As an adverb it was found as early as 1175 (hello American Heritage Dictionary!), meaning just or exactly. That doesn't mean we find it acceptable since many old usages of words have become what people refer to as "incorrect," but it's still there. Interesting. As a side note, even though I believe in language change I still wouldn't use it in formal writing but I think that probably within one generation it will be acceptable. And I think the American Hertiage Dictionary is whack and wishes it is the OED!
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I use "all right" as a precaution, but I'd much rather just go on over to "alright."Lee mentioned James Joyce. I read Portrait for the first time recently, and I'm ready to take on Ulysses. To me, it's dangerous to justify a rule of English on the grounds that James Joyce employed it. Just my initial impression of him ...
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I enjoyed his short story collection, Dubliners, and Portrait less so, but have never been able to put more than a 50-page dent in Ulysses. (It's the Sirens, I swear!)
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I'm just very grateful we didn't all end up speaking Japanese down this end of the world after WW2!!!!! You COULD say our language was SAVED by a bunch of colonial Yahoos!!!
Do you reckon global communication via the internet and movies and such like will help the various dialects of English stay closer together--that the dialects will influence each other enough that language changes (at least in major English-speaking areas) will remain mutually intelligible? Or do you think it won't make much difference to our language's gradual divergence? (This calls for a great deal of speculation, but I'm curious about what you all think.)
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I think we would have difficulties as accents would be more unfamiliar and colloquialisms and slang would be a huge barrier!
Only a funny thing happened (ha ha). A few years ago I started seeing "alright" in magazines and newspapers. Now I'm seeing it in books.
Has "alright" stormed the ramparts? Is the war over? Is it alright to come out now?