Hi Folks
I read an article a couple of days ago, which I skimmed through and all but ignored.
But it subconsciously set me on a train of thought.
The article itself was about the Americanisation [and I refrain from spelling that Americanization!] of the English language.
Long time readers will know my contention that Americans can’t spell. They insist on using such words as “neighbor”, “color” and “theater” as a tiny example of their illiteracy, not to mention that abominable “ize” instead of “ise” [and Z is pronounced Zed, not Zee!]. As a result of my contention, I have to pay extra attention to my own spelling as my American friends are only too happy to see me inadvertently using part of their vocabulary. I have set this site to spell properly, along with my laptop, my browser and my email programme. Unfortunately this leads to problems when doing a little coding as languages insist on using such keywords as “color” and “center”. Bastards.
Unfortunately, despite my best efforts I do find some American expressions entering into my daily use. I categorically refuse to use “movie” as a substitute for film or cinema but I do find myself using one expression which grates on my nerves each and every time I use it. I refer to the greeting “Hi”.
I was brought up to start any written communication with “Dear … “, be it Dear Sir, Dear John or whatever. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to lend itself to the instant medium of the email. In fact there are only two or three people that now receive mails from me addressed in the formal “Dear” and one of those is a bishop [which explains nothing, but his mails always address me as Dear…].
Equally, I was taught that if I started a letter with “Dear Sir”, then I must use “Yours faithfully” when signing off, or “Yours sincerely” if I had used a person’s name in the greeting.
But sadly, as any recipient of any of my mails will testify, I now start all communications with Hi. Sometimes, if the mood is right, I’ll even grace the top of a mail with Hiya. I hate myself every time I do it.
I suppose I’m just trying to maintain a standard in a world that no longer has standards.
Yours faithfully,
etc.
I used to moderate a US BBS, perhaps one of the most infamous ones, and I would spend most of my nights on it.
This was back in oh 2003-2010. Sometimes towards the end of my sojourn there i happen to undertake a car journey with my Ol’ Man and his-far-too-young-for-his-aged-body Wife (actually I jest, they were and are genuinely in love). Chatting as we drove along the pair of them started to pick me up on my English:
I said ‘cell phone’ instead of ‘mobile’, ‘ATM’ instead of ‘Hole-innda-wall ‘ and various other bits of Americania , such as ‘yay big’, that I had somehow subconsciously absorbed by typing with Americans for too long.
3rd hand Americanisation, passive yank-ing -it’s a killer…grammatically speaking.
While a cell phone to me will always be something mounted on the wall of a prison, I use ATM as a matter of course. It’s a modern invention just like the parts of a computer so it’s inevitable that the acronym will be used.
One that really annoys me is the ubiquitous “guys”. A guy is a [slang] bloke, or something to hold a tent up. It is NOT a collective noun for a group of people, yet it is in everyday use even by broadcasters.
Have a nice day.
Dear Grandad,
I heartily concur with your dislike and avoidance of the spellings used by our colonial cousins. However, I’ve been told (but have no evidence for it) that they have retained the spellings, etc., of the Pilgrim Fathers: it’s we who have diverged over the centuries. Even if true, this cannot explain hood/bonnet or boot/trunk (as cars were obviously not around then), nor can it justify such nonsense as tap/faucet.
George Bernard Shaw proposed “rationalised spelling”, which would have omitted unsounded & doubled letters. So though would become tho, ceiling selin, etc. Thankfully we’ve avoided that!
G’day GD,
back in the day when a PC was an oversized keyboard and the monitor was a TV and the games came on cassette tape or floppy disk we had a game show here in Australia called Wheel of Fortune. The object of the game was to guess a word by revealing one letter at a time. I was a regular watcher and when a computer game version came out I managed to copy a copy. Bugger, the game didn’t work properly, a lot of the words were misspelt, which isn’t a good thing in a spelling game. Alas, unbeknown to me the game was based on the American version. Caveat Emptor!
How did an arse become an Equus Asinus?
I thought it became Gluteus Maximus?