Cha-> Gotcha

[thedaffodils]

I knew "cha" means "you". But why do Americans pronounce "you" in this way?

Thank cha? No, Thank you!

[bhaisahab]

I knew "cha" means "you". But why do Americans pronounce "you" in this way?

Thank cha? No, Thank you!

Got you

Got yer

Got'ya

Gotcha.

[thedaffodils]

Got you

Got yer

Got'ya

Gotcha.

I got you! I got cha?

Thank you for your help again!

[seba_870701]

I knew "cha" means "you". But why do Americans pronounce "you" in this way?

Thank cha? No, Thank you!

Hi Daffodil
The answer provided by Bhaisahab is OK but it's very laconic.
In connected speech 'you' can change in 'cha' only if it follows a word ending with 't.' This is called coalescent assimilation.
I guess the following two are the most common examples:
got you --> gotcha
want you --> wantcha.
But it is posible whenever a man speaks fast, e.g.:
beat you --> beatcha,
meet you --> meetcha,
etc.

I hope it helps you a little more.

Seba

PS
That kind of assimilation takes place in spokn English only and it is considered ungrammatical to put it in writing.

[Soup]

Here's another example:

jawanna = do you want to

ja < d'ya < do you
wanna < want to

[thedaffodils]

Seba & Soup,

Thank you for your answers. You are helpful.

[seba_870701]

At your service
S~

[mfwills]

That kind of assimilation takes place in spokn English only and it is considered ungrammatical to put it in writing.

Formally, no. Informally, no problem.

Consider also the possibility that you're writing dialect for whatever purpose, in which you might want the person speaking in that fashion to establish personality, locale, etc.

[eslkorea]

cha can be used to replace you but not in normal settings....it's used more for informal conversations...

[BobK]

The assimilation can go further:

Mind what you are doing => Mind whatcha doing

But also

What are you doing? => Whatcha doing?
and
What do you think? => Whatcha fink?

So "whatcha" can stand for both "what you are" and "what are/do you?" In the case of "What do you," there may be a bit of voicing - I've heard both /ʧ/ and /ʤ/.

I suspect that this accounts for the (Br E only?) informal greeting often spelt "wotcher!"



b