Translation: some snippy British goofballs can’t stand that us uppity Yanks get a say in how we speak (and spell) our own damned language:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284254/Britain-declares-war-words-snuck-skedule-.html
I believe language thrives on give and take, but with the United States it is all take. Americans rarely hear any of our words, let alone adopt them.
Yes, that’s right, we’ve never adopted any English words. We just happened to cobble together a virtually exact duplicate of the English language through pluck and a series of mystical coincidences.
But we are so overwhelmed by everything American that the British have lost their grasp on the difference between our form of English and theirs. This is the reality of cultural imperialism.
Translation: “Boo hoo, how dare they not see our way as the only way?” By the way: Americans outnumber the Brits by *what* margin, again?
Martin Levin of London E4, says he keeps emailing Radio 2 to remind them there is no k in ‘schedule’
Yeah, and there ain’t no “k” in school either. So do y’all go to “shool?” And when ya disagree on something and fight about it, do ya have yerself a “shizm?” And converseliwise, does that mean that “Duke” should be pronounced “Doosh?” Hmmm…
The article ends with:
It may or may not be better than American, but it’s different and it’s ours, part of what makes us distinctive. People do care. It’s time for those with some responsibility for the language to start caring, too.
The French government cares about the French language, and as a result they get snippy about such horrible words as “e-mail” and the like. The end result is the Academie Francaise that makes the French seem provincial and backwards. Are the Brits going to end up the same way? if so, you’ll just accelerate the transition of England from a “nation” into a “theme park.”
“Come and visit Merry Olde England, and listen to the natives as they speak in their quaint, outdated dialects from the Days Of Yore.”
Oh, and a note: I refuse to be lectured about proper English *by* the English. I’ve heard how y’all talk, and it ain’t nuthin’ to write home about. One especially grating example is the apparently retarded announcer on “BBC America.” You’d *think* that for this role they’d pick someone who was especially good at speechifyin’. But every time he says “world,” he pronounces it “wuld,” and every time he says “Earth” it comes out “Uth.” There’s an “R” there, ya goober!
Now, look, in all seriousness, English is a fantabulous language, easily moldable and easily accepting of loan words from other languages when an existing English word doesn’t exist. Americans love to pick up new vocabulary, even some truly stupid stuff. That which can, survives. That which cannot, survives only in movies nobody watches anymore.
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” James D. Nicoll
PS: What’s “English English” for “derp?”
12 Responses to “Some Brits Want English to Be Like French”
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Next thing you know the Brits will be instituting a language police. After all, can’t have the uneducated masses altering the language willy-nilly. Best to leave that in the control of the experts and the “gub-mint.”
Hey,how about a colour war?
I have a spy in the Midlands. He tells me that the BBC gets e-mails and calls and letters about the bad pronunciation of the local announcers. It seems the BBC is tending toward local lingo for local stories, the result being that parts of the rest of the UK have only a slight grasp of the idea what the local announcer is endeavoring to communicate.
I can communicate with them just fine. “Orientate” REALLY annoys me, though. It reminds me the ghetto words “conversate” and “reservate.”
I’ve been in England (and also Scotland) several times in my life (as Italian like I’m) and never, NEVER, had the linguistic troubles caused me by these ja….ss of French!!!!
Next they’ll be telling us that airplanes are made of something called “aluminium”.
And have something called “armour” (which is a form of hotdog) and are painted some sort of “colour.”
PS: apparetnly the Brits don’t have airplanes.” They instead have these things called “aeroplanes,” which I gather are whimsical contraptions made out of wood, canvas and lots of brass fittings.
Actually “aeroplane” is quite similiar to the Italian word (same meaning) “aeroplano”, that proves some common Latin root.
While “aircraft” is translated as “velivolo” in Italian language….
Aeroplanes are used in the Theatre of War, eh what?
Of course these are a people who don’t even know what side of the road to drive on. We have to cut them some slack.
Those wankers can go pissoff!
There, I used “their” language to tell them to go f**k themselves. Does that count?
Borders, language, culture. Any nation has not merely the right but the duty to identify and protect these for itself, and any nation that ceases to do so ceases to be a nation. This much is not merely defensible but a tautology.
If I were in the UK, though, I’d be more worried about my grandchildren being forced to learn Arabic than to learn Americanized spellings, but maybe I’m nuts.
They cranked the pressure up just a little bit, today:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1571544/English-test-planned-for-migrant-spouses.html
Note the comments from the Migration Policy Institute:
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2010/jun/10/british-law-will-require-spouses-to-know-english/news/
I have to say I’m in support of it, and in full agreement with “me.” I’m also willing to consider similar laws for the U.S. We need to be viewing ourselves as a single entity, not as disparate cultures holding nothing common beyond our perceived need for the Federal government.
I think it that we go to school not skool !
I think the main difference is in america they speak american, in a large number of people speak english, increasingly some speak american and others are just plain old illiterate and struggle to string a sentence of ghetto soundbytes together.
The difference most people forget is that the US took a deliberate action to to make english easier for thier society increasing based upon waves of immigrants from europe and the rest of the world to understand. Therefore it is more phonetic that the original english source.
Ironically, most english people think that the american deviations in spelling are incorrect (eg, were U’s are removed from words etc, or S’s are replaced by Z’s) A check of the authoritative OED(oxford english dictionary) actually shows them to be the valid spellings. It is just current convention that dictates they are not used.
dont worry, the debatein enland rages over the use or real (proper) english (Received Pronunciation (RP), also called the Queen’s English), Local Variations or whate ever it is people speak. I think time were actaully better when everyone spoke like the BBC , even on old documentarys even bllue collar workes spoke properkly. Now, they probably speak polish?
and boy, how this debate rages in the up market publications.
lets not get started on the use of language on the internet.
my biggest bug bear is those people who think every comment submitted to a website shoudl be writtenas though you are wrriting to the Queen or the Times Newspaper, where as the informal nature of most commentary systems are actually a more informal structure.
As for the Earth vs Uth and the Bus vs Buuhz, it all in your ears!
when the english say school, urth, buuhz we actaully hear the vowels or constanants you claim not to hear. It in th tuning of the ear, in the same way when a english person hears a red kneck or someone from brooklyn, they have no idea what they are talking about! is like for like. (and its Guv-nant, not gub-munt). Sometimes they way you americans play paly your original mis-hearing of the original doesnt help!
obviously i agree with all the S*** around, more liley to end up speaking arabic and wearing a towel on our heads, but at least we haven eleced one to run the country yet ;o)
Have a nice day ya’all (or what ever it is you chaps say)
(yes, I know in the US chaps is something a coyboy wears, but not over here)
toodle-pip (and no we dont talk like that here any more either)
have fun and litghten up!
….and no, i dont care about the poor spelling, grammer and ramblings