Musings From A Cigarette Smoking Man: One person's view of the insanity we call our lives.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Further Dismantling of the English Language
It has been scratching at the back of my mind for a while, this thing I know I should have already comment on, but for one reason or another I have had other responsibilities that have taken precedence over the want to comment--the need has always been there, I assure you. What I am talking about is the continued lackadaisical use--thus complete decimation--of the English language. However wrong it may be, the practice of using non-words seems to be growing at epidemic proportions. This far exceeds Jeff Foxworthy's offering of such Southernisms as "Djeet yet" and "Yawntoo." Our society seems geared toward making words such as "nother" acceptable. I cannot tell you how many times a day I hear someone use the phrase "a whole nother" when speaking; I brought this to one person's attention and she not only flatly denied the usage, but told me I should stop nit-picking the way others choose to speak (which, in and of itself, substantiated her use of the non-word). Another disservice to our language is the proliferation of the removal of the letter "s" from contractions; I abhor contractions to begin with even though they are an acceptable part of our language, but to further destroy the word with no realization that this is being done? Think about it: Listen to the way those around you speak. "Idn't he the one who got caught cheating?" or "Wadn't I supposed to remind you of sumpthin?" Yes, I forgot about "sumpthin," just as there are more that I have forgotten about. The sad thing is that there is no hope of changing this; it has become too ingrained into our culture.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
language changes like a living being, it is inevitable it grows and simplifies it moves with the needs of society. It wasn't untill the invention of printed word in the west and the codifying/standardization of the language did the localism start to fade into dialect and become nonstandard although throughout the history the Local language was the standard. Take Broad Scots or simply scots English it is a language in and of itself yet so closely related to standard English it is considered by standard English speakers to be somewhat quaint or subpar and yet because of History its not at the same level as English and yet it has the same pedigree and rich history. whots standard one day nowt th'next.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with you on this. What I am having a problem with is the fact that, due to immigration from every part of the world--our language did indeed change as we assimilated the dialects of others into our own use of language. That is not the case with the attitude of today. Today, it is more slang and a simple not caring. You don't know how many times I have heard someone pronounce a word wrong and their excuse is, "Well, that's just the way I have always said it." In and of itself I could accept that, but when shown the proper way to pronounce it, should one not adhere to that, instead of continuing with the idiotology (<--new word. Yay for me)of continuing to pronounce it incorrectly? I remember this guy used the word "fack-ade" once, and when I asked him what that was he said, "You know, like it wuddn't real." I asked him to spell it, and he said, "F-A-C-A-D-E." I told him it was pronounced "Fa-saad" and he said he had never heard that and continued to pronounce it fack-ade. There is too much slang, too much uncaring, and too little being done about it. If our world had a universal language it would not bother me, but the fact that the english language is shown so little respect...well...
Delete