What’s happening to our language

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I'm not buying into the proposition of adults self diagnosing dyslexia, I suspect either a poor education or laziness. We all have spellcheckers.
 
For years I’ve grieved over the decline in the English language. The early days of the grocer’s apostrophe made me wince as a child, at times leading me to doubt my perceived knowledge of what I’d been taught at school. Somehow I survived those occasional sightings of insults to intelligence. As a dyslexic engineer I was never a master of the English language, but as an OCD engineer I hated reading things that were poorly constructed.

Then along came SMS and text-speak (or should that be textspeak or text speak?). As much as I hated it, I could in some ways understand the need to abbreviate, to not follow standard grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style. With only nine keys with which to construct messages, any device to ease the task was appreciated by the sender. On a personal level, I found it harder to read than full text, and still do. But in the circumstances it was an unavoidable burden, a temporary glitch that I was confident technology would soon overcome.

Sure enough, technology rapidly solved any need for the stuttering malady of text-speak. My expectations of a return to normality were dashed however. People continued to use the coded message construction for no apparent reason apart from laziness. It was even appearing in hand-written notes. At the time, fortunately the majority of textual matter I viewed was in newspapers, books and magazines where care was taken with the form of what was on offer. It was a communication skill developed over many years to unequivocally transmit the meaning of a message.

Then Tim Berners-Lee had to go and make everyone’s written word available to everyone else. Instead of the occasional faux pas being presented, they were incessantly rearing their ugly heads all over the world. Mark Zuckerberg then went and made matters even worse. So now not only do we get messages in our faces every minute of every day that comprise code that would be a challenge for Alan Turing, once translated the messages remain indecipherable due to a preponderance of incorrectly chosen words. Many of the errors we see now are a factor of spellchecking that automatically replaces a mistyped word with something that makes no sense. But all too often it’s clearly a fault of the composer.

Am I a fussy dinosaur or is it simply that our language is evolving and changing, as it has done through history? My doubts about the latter are founded on the knowledge that previous iterations have been to make our language more available and more comprehensible for a wider audience. What we see now is far from comprehensible and certainly wide open to misinterpretation.

This rant was brought about by an advertisement that appeared in my email this morning. It makes me despair for our future in a world where communication is so essential. I should HAVE ignored it, but I couldn’t.

View attachment 77748
Nowt rong wiv that is their?

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
 
It's not just the written language though. London yoofs who've never been further than Croydon speaking with cod Yardie gangsta accents, or those who worship the frog with every gathering sounding like "innit innit, innit, innit innit innit, innit".
 
A friend of mine is a teacher in a primary school and recently saw some end of term reports written by a colleague. In one report on a young lad, said colleague noted that "this term he has done excellent".

The writer of the report was the Head Teacher - an English graduate.
 
A friend of mine is a teacher in a primary school and recently saw some end of term reports written by a colleague. In one report on a young lad, said colleague noted that "this term he has done excellent".

The writer of the report was the Head Teacher - an English graduate.
Eek. And when did “Invite” suddenly change from a verb to a noun? And when someone dies, why do we hear that they “passed”. Passed what? I blame those on the other side of the pond.
 
And when did people start prefacing sentences with “And”?
 
Spotted this on the back of a van some time ago (see righting at bottom write):

Van.jpg
 
.....and down the pub "can I get a pint of lager". As a bartender I'd be inclined to say " no that's my role perhaps I can get one for you"

"In the future" has been replaced by "going forward". The England team will do well going forward

Makes me whince.

I enjoyed a recent top tip in Viz magazine. Rappers...avoid repeatedly saying " do you know what I'm saying" by explaining yourself more fully in the first place.

Chris
 
.....and down the pub "can I get a pint of lager". As a bartender I'd be inclined to say " no that's my role perhaps I can get one for you"

"In the future" has been replaced by "going forward". The England team will do well going forward

Makes me whince.

I enjoyed a recent top tip in Viz magazine. Rappers...avoid repeatedly saying " do you know what I'm saying" by explaining yourself more fully in the first place.

Chris

Nice one Tim. :thumb:
 
And when did people start prefacing sentences with “And”?
I see what you did there.

You did do that deliberately, didn’t you? Please tell me you didn’t :D
 
Then there's 'I should of done'..........
 
Reminds me of the signwriter who did the shop sign for Bolland and Andrew.
Unfortunately he left too much space between Boll and and, and and and and, and and and And, and And and rew.
 
I see what you did there.

You did do that deliberately, didn’t you? Please tell me you didn’t :D
Sorry Bobby, it was delbiriate. It was like one of those ideas that like came to mind. I could of like ignored it, but then went 4 it lol
 
"Can I get" is another creeping Americanism favoured by the yoof of today. I'd banish that along with every pimply white kid who feels the need to talk gangsta.
 
I was a big fan and ardent follower of Hitchens, until his death in 2011. He left us with many gems, and in terms of language, few better than his observations on, the mostly young person's use of Uptalk:

The Other L-Word, Vanity Fair

You will have noticed the way in which “uptalk” has also been spreading among the young. “Uptalk” can be defined as an ostensibly declarative sentence that is uttered on a rising note of apology and that ends with an implied question mark. An example: the statement “I go to Columbia University?,” which seems to say, “If that’s all right with you.”

Just as the humble, unassuming, assenting “O.K.” has deposed the more affirmative “Yes,” so the little cringe and hesitation and approximation of “like” are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness. To report that “he was like, Yeah, whatever” is to struggle to say “He said” while minimizing the risk of commitment. (This could be why young black people don’t seem to employ “like” quite as often, having more challenging vernaculars such as “Nome sane?”—which looks almost Latin.)


Nome sane?

 

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