EVE General Discussion

Using 'discuss' to invite discussion is an Americanism.

If you were to travel back in time 200 years, you would not be able to hold a conversation with someone in England, let alone Scotland, Ireland or Wales.

Languages evolve. This is a good thing, you should embrace it.

Cockney rhyming slang is a classic example of language evolving, but in your highly restrictive theoretical 'perfect' world, this language would not exist. This would be a shame because then someone would not be able to call you a Berkshire Hunt, or just a plain and simple 'Berk'.

Your other point about pronunciation is highly annoying, too.

What is wrong with differentiation of pronunciation? You reside in an incredibly diverse and rich land of pronunciation, and very very very few people use RP, with most using pronunciation of the area in which they were raised...which leads me onto my next point.

People in America have no choice about how they sound when they speak, only that they sound like, or mostly like, everyone else around them.

They had no choice - and yet you honestly come to the forums and attack someone for something they had no control over?

Why? Because you wish to resurrect an antiquated global viewpoint that English people are prissy arrogant wimps? Congratulations on re-enforcing a stereotype.

Continuing the direction my post is heading...I like the way Americans and Canadians sound, I find it very interesting to hear them speak and everyone in those countries has earned the right to adopt whichever language they want to.

Times change, my friend - but I do take umbrage at your usage of the Oxford English Dictionary to try and win a point. I was born and educated in and at Oxford.

Now, I can almost guarantee that I could out-speak you in dialect, tonality, cadence, pronunciation and general debate. All the while I could do it with so much upper class snobbery and arrogance, that afterwards you'd feel the need to bend over and shine my shoes, little man.

So, I wish to call you a hypocrite, as I doubt you have any grounds to correct Americans when your own pronunciation errors would not stand up to scrutiny, or as the Americans might say; scrutinization.

AK

Yes, you would. English 200 years ago was extremely well defined. You can go back 500 years and read documents quite clearly, certainly without any training.



Who invented and propagated the language? More importantly, who invaded and traded there way to be the super power to make the language so internationally important? It wasn't that backwards colony which without French help would still have a Union Jack in the flag, that's for sure.

FYI US English isn't a dialect, its a bastardisation.

This thread is going places. Next stop, why brazillian portuguese sucks ass.

And the loudest

I give you Devvo, King of Chavs

Sorry but I can't agree with you.

I'm native born from a country of discovers and travelers too thanks to whom humanity today knows a little better their world, English, Spanish, German and Italians mostly for the biggest known colonizers.

The differences you notice about English GB and English US and call those bastardization is a misunderstanding and fear of evolution.
As a matter of fact if you look at other great dialects like Spanish, German or Portuguese they have also the equivalent of "US English".
It's a much smoother/slower talking, almost like chanting, a lot of new words and expressions come directly from the mix of local languages or from the mix of enslaved persons that had as origin mostly south Africa but also some Arabians or Chinese.

I can't stop being marveled by this so specific and non the less incredibly interesting dialect that crushes strict rules and closed minds over time in some sort of unstoppable evolution, that like it or not, is happening under your nose.

How different, horrible, bizarre or bastardized American English or whatever language in this world would look for you if tomorrow you had to deal with an extraterrestrial force, and your life would depend on your ability to communicate with your peers?

This is the dumbest thread that has ever existed. Oh dear lord, there are minor differences in vocabulary and spelling between two countries separated by an ocean. We should all cry even though they are both, with few exceptions, mutually intelligible.

Just relax and smoke a cigarette. (said in an more Anglo way I could get banned)

If you could read, you would see that I wrote 'hold a conversation' not 'read the newspaper'.



'FYI' is an Americanism, FYI.

By the way, US English is a series of dialects, intricately woven to form the American Quilt of patch-work language.

This, in many ways, is exactly like the language of the UK.

In some parts of northern England, a 'brew' would mean a cup of tea - but in other parts this would imply a pint of beer.

Do you have milk in your tea? And do you put the milk in before the tea, or afterwards?

It's an honest question, as there is not really any difference between the two, but do you know why there is a difference in preference? And how that came to be?

Well, there are many theories, but the one that I believe to be the most logical is Bristol dock-workers used to drink tea by the case [there is a tea-warehouse in Bristol from the old trading days].

Only problem was that the quality of the ceramics used in the mugs/cups used to consume tea were not very good. This meant that if piping hot tea [100 degrees celsius] were poured into these low quality mugs, they in all likelihood would break. Thus, if cold milk was poured into the mug prior to the tea, the chances were lowered that the mug/cup would break. The added benefit is that dock workers would be able to drink the tea faster and get back to work sooner.

Some might say, therefore, that those who put the milk in first come from a 'working class background' and didn't have access to quality ceramics. This insistence to 'put the milk in first!' has therefore been passed down the generations.

Conversely, Chinese ceramics were more advanced than their European counter-parts and the Chinese as a result, do not require milk in their tea and perhaps even more importantly than that, is the fact Tea is supposed to evolve its flavour throughout the infusion process. The addition of Milk ruins this and tea tastes the same throughout the course of drinking it.

This brings me nicely back to my point on language...

Language is supposed to evolve over time.
Language does evolve over time.
Every new instance of English is part of the infusion process.
This adds, I don't know how it subtracts.

If Americanese far in the future becomes defacto, then I can only assume it got to be that way because it allowed itself to evolve.

If we (UK residents, I'm looking straight at you and your children) do not evolve English - we will be speaking a dying language before you can say 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'*

AK

*from the Oxford Dictionary.

Here's a sample of the 1611 King James Bible for reference:



It seems we're all spelling things wrong.

Actually, language is dictated by those who speak and write it. You don't speak the English of your ancestors, because it changed along the way. It will continue to change, and in the end what is "right" will be determined by popular usage. We have 300,000,000 people spelling it our way. I guess that means we win?