[Vocabulary] We gone pray

[sitifan]

“This really is a seminal moment in American history, so we gone pray for America, that it won’t act like its usual self,” Crump says that Sunday night before the trial to the men in the circle. “We gone pray she will be her very best self and deliver justice to this family.”
https://time.com/6016193/ben-crump/

What does the word "gone" mean in the above passage?

 

[GoesStation]

It's another way to spell "gonna". Both instances of "we gone pray" mean we're going to pray.

 

[Phaedrus]

“This really is a seminal moment in American history, so we gone pray for America, that it won’t act like its usual self,” Crump says that Sunday night before the trial to the men in the circle. “We gone pray she will be her very best self and deliver justice to this family.”
https://time.com/6016193/ben-crump/

What does the word "gone" mean in the above passage?

It's Ebonics. "We gone pray . . ." = "We gonn(a) pray . . ." = "We are going to pray . . . ."

 

[teechar]

Wow, I would have taken it as a typo/mistake.
"gonna", yes; but "gone" (short for going to), new to me.

 

[emsr2d2]

I've heard it lots in American films and TV series but I don't think I'd ever seen it written down before. The transcription is spot-on, though. The only thing I'd say is that when I've heard it, the "o" has sounded more like "oh" than the short "o" of BrE "gone".

 

[Phaedrus]

I've heard it lots in American films and TV series but I don't think I'd ever seen it written down before. The transcription is spot-on, though. The only thing I'd say is that when I've heard it, the "o" has sounded more like "oh" than the short "o" of BrE "gone".

I think I prefer the transcription We gon' pray, with just the apostrophe, indicating a truncated gonna. There is an elided/forgotten are/'re, too, of course, after We.

Compare: We gon' be a'ight. (= We are going to be all right.) In Ebonics, gone can actually mean gone and sound like it: We gone (= We are gone).

 

[probus]

I really think this use of gone is confined to AAVE (Afro-American Vernacular English, because in most American speech the gonna is reduced to nothing or almost nothing. I'm reminded of the southerner who was asked if he was going to evacuate ahead of an impending hurricane: "Nope. I'm a stay right here."

 

[jutfrank]

I think I prefer the transcription We gon' pray, with just the apostrophe, indicating a truncated gonna.

I couldn't agree more. I can't imagine why the writer thought it was a good idea to put an 'e' at the end there.

 

[probus]

I couldn't agree more. I can't imagine why the writer thought it was a good idea to put an 'e' at the end there.

I think the e is on the end because in AAVE, which the author was trying to represent,
gone rhymes with phone, although it doesn't in other varieties of AmE.