# Mini-rant on imprecision in language
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-rant-on-imprecision-in-language/135042
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [November 3, 2002, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-rant-on-imprecision-in-language/135042 "2002-11-03T00:42:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2002, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-rant-on-imprecision-in-language/135042/21 "2002-11-04T05:50:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by **tomndebb** _:
> **Curiously, however, this appears to be a very old pronunciation, occurring in more than one British dialect.**
Ya mean ta tell me Brooklyn is in England?
---
### Author:  [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2002, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-rant-on-imprecision-in-language/135042/22 "2002-11-04T07:12:57Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by TVGuy \*
> **Besides, I think the intent was to point out VERBAL abuses, not written ones - right?**
Actually, written is a subset of verbal, which means “of words”. You perhaps meant “oral”.
😛
---
### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2002, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-rant-on-imprecision-in-language/135042/23 "2002-11-04T11:22:49Z")
I grit my teeth when someone says “center around” instead of “center on.”
Another one that gets to me is the use of objective case pronouns before a gerund instead of the possessive. Wrong: “Do you mind me playing the piano?” Correct: “Do you mind my playing the piano?” The same is true when using proper nouns: “Where you aware of John’s (not John) passing?” But which is correct for other nouns? “Did you hear the crowd’s roaring?” – or – “Did you hear the crowd roaring?”
“Y’all” is a convenience to distinguish between the singular _you_ and the plural _you_. I don’t know how others talk without it. Does it annoy any of y’all?
I don’t know its origin, but many Southern usages are Elizabethan, Scottish, and Irish.
Well, I’m fixin’ to go fix breakfast…Do you want to eat or do you want to quibble. 😉 I refuse to serve “a mess of” anything, but I will be serving grits.
---
### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2002, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-rant-on-imprecision-in-language/135042/24 "2002-11-04T12:28:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Ya mean ta tell me Brooklyn is in England?
Well, not _that_ Brooklyn. However, I have seen that pronunciation “blamed” on everyone from Polish or Serbian immigrants to Southern blacks, and I find it interesting that it occurred in Britain before any of the “other” people ever spoke English.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-rant-on-imprecision-in-language/135042.md?page=1)