DIALECT AND SLANG
Dialect, slang, and colloquialisms are considered of value in giving piquancy to a story or novel, and each writer has a method of his own which the compositor must follow. When he can do so, and the author permits, he should make one word of all colloquial clippings of speech, as ain't or hain't, don't, won't, can't, shan't, putting no space between the words and using the apostrophe in place of the cancelled letter. Ain't and are n't are of bad form, but permissible as exhibits of vulgarisms. According to rule, shan't should have two apostrophes (one for the elision in shall, and one for that in not), but two apostrophes in one short word are unsightly, and one is customary.
I 've, you 'll, 't was, 't was n't, 't is, 't is n't, etc., are more clearly expressed when a thin space is put between the words, but in some printing-houses this space is often omitted by order.
'I've forgotten the countersign,' sez 'e.
'Oh! You 'ave,'ave you?' sez I.
'But I'm the Colonel,' sez 'e.
'Oh! You are, are you?' sez I.
'Colonel nor no Colonel, you waits 'ere till I'm relieved, an' the Sarjent reports on your ugly old mug. Coop!' sez I. . . . An' s'elp me soul, 't was the Colonel after all! Kipling.
The Century dictionary prefers a thin space before the apostrophe when is or has is clipped to 's,
