Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
shoulda, should of, coulda, could of, woulda, would of
These are aberrant spellings of should have, would have, and could have or their contractions should’ve, would’ve, and could’ve, made to reflect actual pronunciations. The spellings with of are frequently inadvertent; when writing hurriedly we may spell as we pronounce, and would’ve can come out would of. The of spellings also appear in eye dialect. The spellings shoulda, woulda, and coulda are always eye dialect, locutions deliberately misspelled to suggest the way our speech sometimes sounds. See OF (2).
