Why do so many people leave the "G" off of a verb that ends in "ing"? "I went joggin this mornin"

I do it often when typin' in
answers because I like to. It
sounds better to me in the
case of many words. It goes
way back, one of the best
examples being the song
"Singin' in the Rain". I
think people just prefer the
way it sounds.

Spoken English is full of such 'relaxed pronunciation'. I hafta, you gotta, d'ya wanna, I dunno... Written English acknowledges only contractions like "I'm" for "I am", but these other examples are not really errors or laziness; that's how people talk.

If you're talking about pronunciation (as opposed to writing), there is no "g" in "-ing." There is only the vowel /I/ and the nasal consonant (in the International Phonetic Alphabet) /ŋ/.

Some dialects of English, like Texan, use /n/ where Standard (Midwestern) American uses /ŋ/. It's just a difference.

For speakers of many other dialects, it's a simplification in casual speech. Sounds made at the front, like /n/ are easier to make in conversation than back (velar) sounds like /ŋ/, especially when the vowel is at the front like /I/.

As newnickname said, it's not an error or laziness. It was laziness by our ancestors, but that's one way that all languages develop (The Principle of Least Effort). Now it's just dialect or casual.

Writing joggin' shows the casual pronunciation (since there is no letter for /ŋ/).

If you go to New York City, as well as others along the NE coast of the US, you will hear the conservation of the /g/, not only in word-final position but also in such words as hanger and singer.

Better to leave off than to add on, I say. It's easier to say "walkin" or "goin" but since when is the name spelled "REBECCAR" or "SARAHR." And when did people start shopping at WalmartS and KmartS and Barnes and NobelS?