,,,using non-standard spellings like gonna for standard (but informal) phonological variants paints the speaker as folksy, rustic, etc. (Mark Liberman has called
such spellings "standard non-standard orthography".) The writer thus
covertly injects a social judgment about the speaker into what is
framed as a report of an interview about experiences and opinions. In
the pages of the New Yorker, N variants convey a negative
judgment (because the magazine’s readers are likely to hold to the
belief that the N variants are, if not simply non-standard, that is,
"incorrect", then at least rough, "hick", variants).
The New Yorker’s Philip Gourevitch needs to get out and around a bit more; here in a rather more cosmopolitan San Antonio everyone thinks everyone else has a funny accent, but it’s no big thing. ¿Que no?
The Random Texan 
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