[tlhIngan Hol] {'e' qa'} "instead of" with quotations

[luis.chaparro at web.de]

> I 'll take your word for it that there are no contractions of verb forms in Standard German but what about non-standard regional dialects (High vs. Low German) both in Germany and abroad (Austria, Switzerland, Alsace, the Netherlands, the Baltics, etc.); the speech of the uneducated and other low-class sociolects; not to mention the old-fashioned German spoken by various emigrant groups like the *Wolgadeutschen* and *Russlandmennoniten* in Russia, the Old-Order Amish and Mennonites (who both speak what is called "Pennsylvania Dutch" in the US), and elsewhere?

Well, in some situations, specially in the colloquial language, the pronoun *es* can merge with the word standing before, which can *also* be a verb: *Mir geht's gut, danke* or *Mir gehts gut, danke* (*I'm fine, thank you*), instead of *Mir geht es gut, danke*. Otherwise you must look, as you say, in the dialects and other varieties of the German language, but I'm not an expert in this matter. (The Wikipedia has a couple of good examples for German dialects: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verschmelzung_(Grammatik), also in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraction_(grammar)#German)

I hope I could help a little!