Something has been playing on my mind recently, and that is the lack of English mother tongue speakers who really make an effort to speak properly, or at least articulate. Another thing which has got me pondering the future of our language is the amount who don't bother about basic grammar. Put these two together and in fact the future of the English language in its native country is very bleak unless someone does something pretty soon.
There are several problems. One of those is that it is not fashionable in the south east of England to sound in any way intelligent, because you can seriously lose friends. I mean it. It has gone so far that often those who articulate are seen as untrustworthy and even corrupt. Take Hollywood. In their films all the bad guys are played by either New Englanders or Brits: the crew on the Titanic was split between the loveable Irish rogues and the unscrupulous British gentry. Cruella De Ville in 101 Dalmatians was played by a well-spoken dame and Alexis Colby of Dynasty fame was Joan Collins, the TV character being forever associated with the tag "bitch". It just wouldn't have been the same if they were Californian, Welsh or Australian.
You have been warned...
I noticed how easy it is for people to look down upon those who speak clearly, and there are other perception problems surrounding this. Many dialects and accents are just as valuable, adding to the richness of the language but the most accepted way to speak is with a lazy slur and an attitude of nonchalance. So as long as you don't sound out of place you'll never have to fear rejection. It's not a case of class any more, because so many people of different backgrounds are training themselves to speak that way. If it were, it would be easier to draw the line somewhere.
Recent research by a linguistic institute found that the lower the class (linguistic, not economic), the more mistrusting of clear speakers one is, yet the lower the class (economic, not linguistic) the better one gets on with those at the top, because both sections of society know who they are and are content with their place in the world. A true working class person would not have it any other way and neither would the aristoes! So the problems lie with the middle class - never content with their position they always seem to want to aim higher. They are the driving force behind this new obsession with grammarless English and they are too proud to speak to common folk and too starstruck to hold a civilised conversation with the privileged classes. Their version of the upper class is in fact being led by people like footballers, television personalities and pop stars.
It is due to these new 21st century "icons" that our language is being taken out of our hands. That and a very naïve government policy which thinks all English and Welsh school students are stupid and can't understand the principles behind grammar. I tell my own students (I have about 80 of them at the moment) that their version of English is the correct one. They should not copy anyone else's English because they can also be wrong. They should firstly write it down or make a mental note of it and ask one of the translators, interpreters or language trainers in the Institutions.
I don't care what people say about the way I speak English. I love my language, I am in awe at its humble beginnings and survival and I wish to speak it properly. It has a truly global influence, but it's such a shame that the people who started it off are now moving to some other, more user-unfriendly version which will be, in 100 years' time, an offshoot of the main version, a little like Latin and its offshoots.
1 comment:
I think one has to accept that English as a language, is under constant attack these days. It’s forever having to absorb new words, particularly from the world of technology and the internet. 50 years ago, nobody used the word Joypad, CD, Cellphone, SMS and so on and so on. People are also communicating globally, and assimilating information at an unprecedented pace.
Unlike even 20 years ago, people now have resources to find out news as soon as it happens, when they want, wherever they want. The amount of useless information that floods our lives is also increasing exponentially.
Your blog is a prime example of the types of new information sources, as are the plethora of Podcasts, news sites, social networking sites, and video sharing sites.
With it comes a certain amount of information overload. People are quite efficient at filtering things out that are not important, but when one has to forget more and more, important things can get tossed into the mix.
The rise and rise of SMS, Instant messaging and blogging (whether here or in forums), has meant people have grown accustomed to using shorthand to convey meaning, rather than typing reams and reams of text to do the same.
Structured English, at least in written form, is out of the window.
Simultaneously, and in connection with this, we have the erosion of accents as we know them.
Inner london, over the last 30 years or so, has seen a vast increase in the number of West Indians, Asians, and European migrant workers, - and thus the accents have altered accordingly. Old Cockney East London accents have been overtaken by an amalgamation of West Indian Patwa, along with Asian, and a mix of others - with “Common” lodnon. The result is an Ali-G sound-alike - young white boys who sound like West Indians - only not. They arent necesarily aping their black friends, it’s just that they are in a group that predominantly speaks like that. It’s no different to someone who grows up in America, Australia or South Africa. They pick up the accent naturally.
On top of that, the ‘txt-spk’ of the written world carries over, and people drop whole words from sentences to shorten them.
‘I’m goan dahn pub, you commin?”
“Dat was PHAT!”.
“Wasaldatabah?”
I think we’ll see a similar shift in speech amongst the youngsters growing up today, as we have even more accents and backgrounds to amalgamate - eastern europeans in particular.
In effect, we are seeing a change in the English language that is no less significant than that of when English was standardised by the written word, centuries ago. Things are changing so fast, that even within the time that we have grown up, accents have changed dramatically in some areas.
Sadly, this trend will mean that whole groups of people are unable to communicate with society at large effectively.
One wonders where this will end up. Back in the old days when the village just down the road used different words for common items than the village you live in?
Godness me
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