Why are the Americans ruining our language?

Great Debates
1

Whilst I think that this website is interesting, I object to Cecil’s final comments about the usage of ‘different to’ as opposed to ‘different from’ and the way that he admonishes English speakers in the United Kingdom.

The misleading assertion that ‘logic demands the former’ is unjustified within the context of language. Webster sought to make the English language logical (a concept that is inconceivable, except for Microsoft) and I am not aware of a worthy justification for his desecration of the process of the evolution of language. I have heard two excuses: 1) Webster, and the other philistines, did it to make writing English simpler, 2) He did it because he wanted to distance the Americans from the English by changing the spelling of certain words. Neither of these reasons justifies the desecration of the heritage bestowed on those of us lucky enough to speak such a beautiful language. The American ‘logicising’ of English is the linguistic equivalent of the Taliban’s destruction of Buddhist temples in Afghanistan.

English is a language, like many others, that has evolved over a great many hundreds of years. During this evolution it has developed countless idiosyncracies that define its beauty and diversity as a language. I am not suggesting that we develop an equivalent to the French Academy, which seeks to cling on to redundancies purely because they are French. The evolution of language must be allowed to occur but this should not be dictated by individuals.

Americans, under the banner of simplification, make words such as paedophile (from the Greek) into a combination of Latin and Greek that actually means ‘foot lover’ (pedophile). Is this because Americans are incapable of coping with two juxtaposed vowels because I fail to see how this arbitrary removal of letters could be regarded as ‘simplification’? In the United States, one talks of ‘aluminum’. Consider sodium, calcium, barium, lithium, potassium, magnesium, titanium, uranium, gallium, germanium, cadmium, rubidium etc.? Where is this supposed ‘logic’. Name one other element that ends in simply ‘um’. Surely Caesium should be renamed ‘Cesum’.

Grammar and spelling are derived from language, which is a function of human expression. It is as fatuous to try to simplify language as it is to try to simplify human expression.

I appeal for the return to writing and speaking an unhomogonised, unpasteurised and uncorrupted language in America.

2

“English is a language, like many others, that has evolved over a great many hundreds of years. During this evolution it has developed countless idiosyncracies that define its beauty and diversity as a language”
WHAT?

hmmmmmmm I have absolutly nothing nice to add to this post so I will keep it really short. why would you want to keep one of the most difficult languages on the planet to learn in it current pain in the ass to learn state? I am with Ben Franklin on this one we should have an american written language where the rules like i before e are just that, no except in this or that or in a bunch of words just because. ok I lied it wasnt really short but it was fairly short. gnight

3

What’s the big deal? Let Americans speak American English, Australians speak Australian English and the English speak the Queen’s English.

I find the differences, the simplifications, the statis, and the changes really interesting. Its not butchery - its evolution.

In Japan, people in Osaka speak Osaka dialect. On negative verbs you stick a “hen” instead of a “nai” like you do in Standard (Tokyo) Japanese. Everyone still understands each other, nonetheless. Each dialect has a certain parochial and certainly cultural flavour to it which I quite like.

There is no reason why English can’t have the same useful, entertaining and flavoursome sense of reflection of background. When I see someone write “gaol” instead of “jail”, I know I am amongst my own*. If I see someone write “ass” instead of “arse”, I am struck with a sense of recognition of the English of another land (and I usually grin too). I enjoy hearing variations of my mother tongue, spoken or written by someone else.

Heaven help us if there was no diversity in ourselves and in the language which reflects ourselves.

*[sub] or amongst people from the British Isles or New Zealand, but not North Americans.

4

Both you and Cecil are wrong. He has no basis for telling off Britons for speaking British English, anymore than you have a basis for comparing Americans to the Taliban for speaking American English.

Dialectal variations are natural and beautiful. A world without Australian English, Québécois French, Castillian Spanish, and Florentine Italian would be more boring than this one. To define your own or another’s regional variations as closer to some ethereal standard of perfect English is not only insulting, it’s also meaningless.

5

Microsoft is a concept? Or did you mean “by Microsoft”?

6

I asked my friend Laura and she said that, no, we have no problems with diphthongs. Also you are missing a much-needed semicolon or question mark after “vowels.” The sentence as written is much too confusing without it.

7

I think it means that we are incapable owing to his failure. Do I get a gold star? Or maybe some other color?

8

You posted this same OP in 2 other forums–GQ and CCC.

9

So you’ll excuse us if we ignore your calls to speak the queen’s English, if that’s really your point.

10

Platinum?
Tantalum?
Molybdenum?

11

Oops, sorry, that was three, not one

bmerton. why is it such a big deal; languages evolve, why should we stop that happening? Who is actually harmed by the fact that Americans spell it ‘color’ or pronounce it aluminum? (I’m with Dave Stewart on this one - sometimes it is actually a useful cue to the nationality of the author).

12

Nah. He meant that, for Microsoft, the concept is conceivable. Similarly, it may not be possible for them to realise this concept.

13

So why have the Brits shortened “polyethylene” to “polythene”? Dumbing down, Lord Bubba?

You’ll be pleased to hear that orthopedic surgeons in this country have taken to calling their specialty “orthopaedics”. Though I suspect the main reason is that it sounds ritzier and justifies higher fees. :wink:

14

Yeah!, and shortened ‘Spiced Pork and Ham’ to SPAM. Unforgivable!

15

Cross-posted, Copy & Pasted OP. Yo, Merton, you haven’t got an “agenda” or anything like that, have you?

Locked in GQ, as it wasn’t a GQ.

Still open in Comments.

16

Forgive me for being particularly dense, but how else would a language evolve? :confused:

17

Yeah, we should all drop English as a language, less we ruin it. All of the world should speak Klingon, the one true tongue!

18

bmerton, I understand your pain. For many years I have wondered why Americans feel the need to spell words like “colour” and “foetus” differently. In time, I have come to accept these differences. I feel that they have been used for so long now, that it would be unreasonable to ask or expect anyone to change. What I cannot stand are grammatically incorrect phrases which are currently becoming more and more widely-used. Slang words, acronyms, idiomatic expressions and other additions to the language do not bother me. Phrases such as “on accident” or “a one and a thousand chance”, and the use of the word “lay” in the present tense fill me with fear that such instances of grammatical error will one day be accepted as correct, even in our dictionaries. I cringe at the thought that all tenses and prepositions will one day be interchangeable as the English language degenerates into ungodly babble. But what can we do to stop this?

If you have any ideas, I’m all ears…

19

gobshite

Did I use English correctly?

20

As I mentioned in your post in GQ, in many cases, modern American spelling and pronunciation is closer to 18th century British English than modern British English is. As I also said, languages change over time, dialects develop, and these dialectual differences strenghen the language. There’s no one “correct” English, because English isn’t a language granted to the people by heaven. It evolved and mutated by being spoken. There was a TV miniseries called “The Story of English” that might interest you. It looks at how the language has taken its present form.