do you speak english?

in ireland...they are really upset that their language is dying out... getting overtaken. and although i thought it was silly. its not man. language is the language you speak.. 'you talk my language' 'now your talking my alnguage' what a great phrase...
this texting and computer languae is another evolution and wot do u think of tha?
it is dumb and lazy use of a language.. but it also defines a generation with self expression of making their mark on history.

some americanism are terrible. adominable ... really really annoying!! some pronunciations or spellings... awful.
but then again, it relfetc a more laid back attitude to language and it could be said then that the british are uptight traditionalists for hanging on to something that is changing forever, all the time..

 

It's incredible really, that the last person in Ireland who couldn't speak English only died comparatively recently. She was probably born at the time when it was made illegal to speak Gaelic by the protestants as well.

Thanks for reminding me of the one thing that makes American corruption of the language seem fairly inoccuous even to me. And that is chav speak and txtspk. The funny thing is the way these people turn up on the internet trying to use as few characters as possible and then try to tell me that I ought to keep up with the times. Erm, hang on a minute, we've had predictive text for quite a while now, so having to save time with as few characters as possible is rather out-moded now don't you think? And it's particularly unforgiveable on a computer with a qwerty keyboard. Drives me up the wall to think that these muppets can't be arsed to speak English properly and then try to justify it as a modern form of communication.

I think it's healthy and good to take the language seriously. English is a fantastic language in many ways. It may not be the best for getting your point across accurately without risk of ambiguity, but it IS fantastic for expressing yourself in a number of very creative different ways, thanks to its vocabulary which is much larger than a lot of other languages. It was good enough for Shakespeare after all. It's just wrong to let it go down the pan, just because people want it simplified. There is absolutely no reason to simplify or reform the language. If people think it's too difficult to grasp as it is (which is nonsense really), then that too is a positive as if you learn it properly at an early age and understand why it is the way it is then it can only help your abililty to think, you have a much greater grasp of the meanings of phrases beyond the basic gist of a sentence and you can use the vast array of means of expression to its full potential.

I see no injustice in calling people who can't use their first language properly idiots, because that is what they are, they are too lazy and stupid to understand the point of it. They may claim that it is not their fault, they may blame education or whatever, but all it takes is reading a few books. Anyone can go down to the library for fuck's sake!

 

rah!!!

i know someone who cant read or write.. and then i think..bloody hell. my vocabulary allows me to understand more meanings in things.
althhough there's only so much you can express in words,[a meaning] reading and understanding different reaches of vocabulary is a true blessing.
but you see then again... it's only words...

i have a love hate relationship with words.. i love them, exalte praise and glorify them. but then they fail me. they fail to express alot of things. thats probably why i love them. becuase they fall away. cease, disappear, at those rare times.

 

Nobody said it was perfect. But there's nothing better.

 

lol

 

Sax_Machine

I don't know anything about the education system in England. But, I can tell you, it's not all that wonderful over here.
The brain is designed to learn languages easily up until the age 6 or 7. In that time, you can teach a child 2, 3, 4, even 5 languages, maybe more. And other countries have realized this. (In high school, there was a girl from Hungary, and she knew French, English, Spanish, German, I believe Russian, and maybe one or two others. I was amazed at how intelligent she was, because here in America we simply don't teach our children to be intelligent!) I don't get it. I was an education major for awhile and that's where I learned about the whole language thing. Obviously we know that children can learn multiple languages fluently if we start them young, yet we don't attempt to teach the masses in the public school system more than the basics of French, Spanish and German. At least then we wouldn't look so arrogant when we travel, since most American's expect people in other countries to speak English rather than learn the language of the country they are visiting.

Each state in America is in charge of curriculum taught in public schools. Our founding fathers set up our education system that way. And, well, that means that some states have really good schools. But, places like where I live, don't.

For instance, grammar is not actually on the curriculum guide for English/language arts in high school for students in Kentucky. Just as the freaking periodic table isn't on the curriculum for Chemistry. It's quite ridiculous and that's just one of the reasons my state is ranked 37 in education. Children here are lucky to know where to put a period, let alone speak English correctly. I ranted about it on a grammar thread somewhere on these boards.

I can only speak for Kentucky, and I know a pretty decent amount of stuff about our school system here because my husband is a teacher working on his second masters to become a principal, and I went half way through the education degree myself until I became jaded with the politics and Kentucky's Education Reform Act. And, I can tell you, many of the school systems here are very poor. We have great schools, but for as many good ones, there's probably 2 or 3 really bad ones. And well, as long as our education system isn't teaching children as well as it should, the lack of language skills is only going to grow, as well as the lack in math skills, science skills, etc. You can't completely blame the people if they don't have the resources available to teach them correctly.

 

I understand this thread, therefore I speak English.

American English and British English are both dialects of the same language. More vocabulary is alike than different. Yes, many of us need to adjust to other varieties of our common language, but Americans don't take classes in British English the way we would take classes in Spanish or Japanese.

Within the USA, we have some regional variations. In some areas, people call a carbonated soft drink "soda," while others call it "pop." Some Southerners use the word "coke" even when it's obviously not Coca-Cola. Do you call it a see-saw or a teeter-totter? Just the same, we understand each other pretty well most of the time.

There are lots of Englishes out there.

 

I think you'll find it's pretty easy to confuse an uneducated American simply by speaking English that only an Englishman would understand.

English and American are more or less mutually comprehensible which is the official test, but there's no escaping the fact that American English is seriously corrupt and full of what would look like hideous errors if written by anyone over here.

 

ha ha!! it is true...

 

Well there are different variations of English around the planet.Take for instance the front driving unit of a semi- trailer (read tractor-trailer for N America an articulated lorry for UK.) In the UK and N America it is a tractor, in Australia it is a prime mover and in South Africa it is a horse.

Also a pick up (vehicle) in North America and the UK is a utility or ute for short in Australia. But a utility (vehicle) is used to mean light commercial in Australia.Confusing isn't it?

As far as spellings go, from what I have heard, the NA spellings are a purer form of spelling as they based on what the Puritans used when they went over in the Mayflower.

One question, what part of USA do they pronounce atomic bomb as tarmac balm and carboard box as cupboard barks?

If you want a bit of a laugh, especially if you personally know any Kiwis,
http://hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96355
so far I have only had one response from a Kiwi and she ended up agreeing with me in the end on at least one issue.

 

What you're describing isn't actually the issue. We've got loads of variants on vocabulary just within England, never mind within the UK. The issue between English and American extends to spelling and grammar, constructions and colloquialisms. And in America things have basically been reformed, messed about with just so that it fits the first things that come into their heads. Americans often seem to confuse obvious with logical, where as the logical way of using the language is what we have in England where things may seem a bit random but are actually logical derivations from all the languages and cultures that influenced it. Americans just go for obvious patterns that they see in some words and phrases and try turn the English language into one size fits all just to save them the trouble of learning the language properly. Vocabulary doesn't enter into it.

 

Put it this way. The English, Aussies, Kiwis speak the "proper" english. Like it or not. Words like colour and labour and meant to have a "u" in them. Words like centre and metre have the "r" before the "e"


Just saying. Some change the way words are simply because they feel like it. It's not a big deal but i've heard yanks say that the way they speak is the more traditional. That's crap. Tell you one thing that annoys me though, when an American pronounces antarctica. They say it without the "t"

Don't you just love accents?

 

I think accents are great. But that's just because I don't have one and it makes accents really interesting to me.

 

It's funny when people say they don't have an accent. I guess it seems that way when you're surrounded by your own. How funny is it when you're around foreigners, i particularly notice how broad the Aussie accent is then

 

Yep. Only I actually DON'T have one. I'm from London and I'm middle class. This is just how things sound when pronounced properly.

 

Poor saxy :-( I bet i'd like your accent. Could be worse. There are a few countries who have the most annoying accents. How about the stupid yanks putting subtitles on Aussies and their accents in some shows. What the hell is that?

 

Hmm.. give me some examples.

What do they put up for "rack off" ?

 

It's just bullshit when we have one of the broadest accents, that they feel we are uncomprehendable. I havn't met one person who ever knows what the hell a yank is saying

 

I beg to differ. When was the last time you said to a yank, "sorry, I didn't quite catch that!" They've got the biggest gobs, the loudest voices and the most irritating timbres.

Oh and the pedant in me is saying "incomprehensible" over and over again. This is why everyone should learn latin at school.

 

it's a bit annoying how the english somehow imagine they have a proprietorial interest in the english language. they don't of course. and all this gobrot about 'correct' and 'received pronunciation' is a load of old cobblers. the empire's over, loves. someone said that a language is only a dialect with an army. in fact, like chomsky reckons: the english language as such doesn't exist.