All this talk about linguistic choices has got me thinking about who uses contractions. The archons and the upper classes / people in leadership seem to never use them at all, but that’s definitely not true of everyone. Seems like a class divide issue potentially? Even without checking, I feel like the Limsans and the Brume folk use them, at least.
ohhh that is more complicated to check but absolutely an interesting issue!!! on a cursory investigation...
well, 'twas and shan't are contractions LMAO.
Urianger: Indeed. 'Twas beneath the shaded boughs of the Rak'tika Greatwood that they finally found sanctuary.
Urianger: Then thou shan't have difficulty understanding the explanation to come.
in terms of more modern ones though, most major characters use them, and it doesn't necessarily keep them from sounding formal... here are some quotes from other Scions!
Thancred: That's because we didn't travel by experimental aetheryte. It's astounding what a lack of nausea does for one's sense of well-being.
G'raha Tia: A long future, mind, whatever the Telophoroi might hope. We'll stop them, won't we. Together.
Y'shtola: They're protecting it, somehow. We shall need to deal with them first.
Alphinaud: If you'll permit me. Alphinaud.
but you are right in that some leaders tend to avoid them, particularly Kan-E, and Nanamo with a couple exceptions when she's going more "off script":
Nanamo Ul Namo: N-No! I couldn't possibly─! We did not come here to fritter away the royal coin!
aaand for the record, here's the regex i used to search for this:
^.Alphinaud:.*\w'[^s|\s].*$
what it's effectively doing is looking for an apostrophe with a letter immediately before it and a letter that's not s (so as to exclude plurals) immediately after it. it gives some false positives (like seeker names), but it's easy enough to look through!
origamiaround
ellievsbear
yousharknotpass
amandla
vaporwave
