This is quite lighthearted compared to conversations with my friend Alex (i nearly typed 'convo' there with is a blatant oz-ism)
He could whinge for England about the decline of spoken English.
I saw an interesting article on 'upspeak' yesterday on the BBC. As in the trend towards raising the pitch/intonation of a sentence towards the end to make it more like a question.
No one can be sure of its origins whether its 'Valley Girls', 'Australians' or 'Sales Pitch'
Without going into the matter too deeply, let's just say that there are illiterate boobs all around the globe. I simply see no reason to point fingers when it comes to abuse of the English language.
This is quite lighthearted compared to conversations with my friend Alex (i nearly typed 'convo' there with is a blatant oz-ism)
He could whinge for England about the decline of spoken English.
I saw an interesting article on 'upspeak' yesterday on the BBC. As in the trend towards raising the pitch/intonation of a sentence towards the end to make it more like a question.
No one can be sure of its origins whether its 'Valley Girls', 'Australians' or 'Sales Pitch'
It's big in Ireland too?
Without going into the matter too deeply, let's just say that there are illiterate boobs all around the globe. I simply see no reason to point fingers when it comes to abuse of the English language.
I'm not sure who you're getting at, but people have being pointing fingers at specific issues, which are often localised. That's not the same as saying "**** 'muricans are stupid and can't speak English".
I'm certainly not saying that at all.
Stupidity is universal
My point was on national/cultural differences, dialects and perceptions.
Likewise i saw Russel Brand giving a fairly vitriolic bashing to the anchor on a US news show and as he (Brand) has a strong southern, almost 'mockney' accent and is quite colloquial, well the poor guy couldn't figure out what was being said to him.
So i wonder how hard it is for people to get across dialects nationally when even internally we sometimes have difficulties.
My uncle is 85 and from a rural area of one of the Uk's counties. He's been a soldier, fisherman, cricketer but never too social and speaks in the way his father did with a broad North Staffordshire dialect. When he spoke to my father (who could put on that dialect when needed) it was incomprehensible. I'm sort of used to it now but here is an example of 'pre TV age Staffs dialect'
cost oo kick a boo agan a woo and bost it? Cost can yoth!
Translation: Can you kick a ball against a wall and break it? Of course i can young man!
Crazy eh?.
Without going into the matter too deeply, let's just say that there are illiterate boobs all around the globe. I simply see no reason to point fingers when it comes to abuse of the English language.
I'm not sure who you're getting at, but people have being pointing fingers at specific issues, which are often localised. That's not the same as saying "**** 'muricans are stupid and can't speak English".
But some of it comes off that way, and the implication is (or appears to be) that only the English speak English properly, and the rest of us are all doing it wrong. Case in point:
Like that bloody "big of a deal" that's taken hold in America - explain to me how that improves the language!
Context makes a big difference, and when you make an observation like that mixed in with such strong language ("bloody," "hate"), it makes it difficult to perceive it in anything but an ethnocentric light. Now, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt because I'm sure you didn't mean anything by it, which is why I politely asked that you leave nationality out of the equation.
Likewise i saw Russel Brand giving a fairly vitriolic bashing to the anchor on a US news show and as he (Brand) has a strong southern, almost 'mockney' accent and is quite colloquial, well the poor guy couldn't figure out what was being said to him.
"Poor guy"? Sean Hannity gets no sympathy from me .
Oh no, not that one. This was Brand in the same studio as a news team. He completely ran rings around them.
The hannity 'analysis' on 'the trews' was pretty spot on though.
I don't really want to get into politics though.
Without going into the matter too deeply, let's just say that there are illiterate boobs all around the globe. I simply see no reason to point fingers when it comes to abuse of the English language.
I'm not sure who you're getting at, but people have being pointing fingers at specific issues, which are often localised. That's not the same as saying "**** 'muricans are stupid and can't speak English".
But some of it comes off that way, and the implication is (or appears to be) that only the English speak English properly, and the rest of us are all doing it wrong. Case in point:
Like that bloody "big of a deal" that's taken hold in America - explain to me how that improves the language!
Context makes a big difference, and when you make an observation like that mixed in with such strong language ("bloody," "hate"), it makes it difficult to perceive it in anything but an ethnocentric light. Now, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt because I'm sure you didn't mean anything by it, which is why I politely asked that you leave nationality out of the equation.
Yeah, I can see how it could come across that way (and indeed there are plenty ars*holes who do think, and say, "everyone who's not English is wrong" (ironically often people with a pretty poor grasp of the language themselves) which probably makes that inference more natural). I'm not sure I agree that we should avoid identifying where the idioms we take issue with have taken root just to avoid potential misunderstanding though. Not sure I disagree either. Just seems like a necessary part of the description though, especially for readers who aren't familiar with the phrase in question. I dunno, I'll try it and see how it feels!
Without going into the matter too deeply, let's just say that there are illiterate boobs all around the globe. I simply see no reason to point fingers when it comes to abuse of the English language.
I'm not sure who you're getting at, but people have being pointing fingers at specific issues, which are often localised. That's not the same as saying "**** 'muricans are stupid and can't speak English".
But some of it comes off that way, and the implication is (or appears to be) that only the English speak English properly, and the rest of us are all doing it wrong. Case in point:
Like that bloody "big of a deal" that's taken hold in America - explain to me how that improves the language!
Context makes a big difference, and when you make an observation like that mixed in with such strong language ("bloody," "hate"), it makes it difficult to perceive it in anything but an ethnocentric light. Now, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt because I'm sure you didn't mean anything by it, which is why I politely asked that you leave nationality out of the equation.
Again regional context i guess (and 'i guess' is cultural imperialism creeping in
)
In the uk in my area 'bloody' is mild annoyance, not vitriolic. Likewise '****' isn't a swear word as i believe it is in some States.
'Hate' well you've got me there, yeah that's pretty clear cut
Oh no, not that one. This was Brand in the same studio as a news team. He completely ran rings around them.
The hannity 'analysis' on 'the trews' was pretty spot on though.
I don't really want to get into politics though.
Ooh, I think I saw that. I have trouble understanding Brand myself sometimes (I'm northern).
Waaagh - I take it you're American? Isn't it like 6 in the morning, or earlier, there?!
Oh no, not that one. This was Brand in the same studio as a news team. He completely ran rings around them.
The hannity 'analysis' on 'the trews' was pretty spot on though.
I don't really want to get into politics though.
Ooh, I think I saw that. I have trouble understanding Brand myself sometimes (I'm northern).
I lived in 'gods own county' as the locals would have it, or 'Yorkshire' to everyone else for five years. After two i had a local accent at times, and especially when required in rough pubs... of which there were many living 'int bratford' (Bradford).
Almost 5 on the Left Coast.
I have no problem with making observations that involve nationality, only the more... impassioned ones that come off as judgmental.
When did anyone call all Americans dumb? I go America most years we as a family used to go to America's Wang every March hit the theme parks or go shopping, now we go California to see my brother and his wife(and their ever growing number of dogs and horses).
I wasn't much for Nevada way too warm for me there.
I have no issue with America or most of its citizens(looking at you w Bush)but you can like a people and still get annoyed when the axe you something instead of asking.
Buddy of mine has a habit of this. Once he gets a mispronunciation in his head, it's impossible to get it out of him. He calls the Tantive the "Tantitive."
"Axe" is less colloquial than it is racial, though for all practical purposes the two might as well be the same. Still, I don't think that's a road we should be going down right now.
"HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT" was just a mock strop, by the way, it doesn't bother me /that/ much. More than it should, but not /that/ much...
I like aks, I use that sometimes just for fun (spoken, not written). Which, according to some articles I've read recently, is racist.
Well way back in 2000 I lived with a girl for several months in New York, one young Englishman in an African American neighbourhood I got mocked alot for how I talked in a good natured way, got a bit awkward when the cops came around and hassled people of course but being from stoke scuffles in alleys are nothing to worry me.
Didn't work out sadly but I have good memories of that time, and I never took offense when they'd try to do a British accent.
Axe me no Questions and I'll tell you no Lies............
and my all time favorite..
I neda go axe my moms. WHAT?!
Edited by Prevailing WindsThe FFG designer said Tan-tiv.
Don't get me started. Pronunciation, especially when attempting to consider root languages, is not most peoples Forte. (See what I did there?)
As an Englishman I've long ago given up getting people to use the language properly, aluminium for example is alu-min-ium not iluminum as Americans say it, also colour and honour have u`s dagnamit.
''What the hell is an Iluminum Falcon?''
Well consider Shakespeare penned over 100 words that were not found in written form before.
They must have been 'street slang' in Elizabethan England but are now considered 'proper words'.
(if archaic ones)
That is what i'm trying to say.
Making 'literally' now also mean 'figuratively' (as the recent OED has it) is, in my mind, frankly crazy.
Have you seen this: