Debate over English is about more than words

[The MoUsY spell-checker]

A news article that you might be interested in: Debate over English is about more than words

Basically, it's about English and "national identity". Do you think that English represents any "national identity"?

Being a language that is used in so many different countries, I don't really associate English with any specific culture. I think it's the localised slang that shows the culture.

(Cross posted to The Foreign Languages Guild and Gaian Grammar Guild)  

[Mia Eidenschink]

I agree. The English language has been bastardized and given different dialects to make it sound almost exotic. Look at the Irish. I love them with all of my heart, but their 'native' language is not English...it's Galeic (pardon my spelling...) Technically, don't the people of England hold the deed to the 'English' language? I do not know...please, help me out on this one if you would, I would really like to know.  

[Sola Catella]

Hell, just after America won its independance from the UK, we had several people who were doing their best to ensure that Americans spoke a distinctly different way from English people. Samuel Webster was one of them. It was his idea to spell the word 'color' and not 'colour,' and he was the source of a lot of the American writing differences.

I do think that the culture is shown more in the dialect of the area than in the dialect of the country, but I do think that the way a person speaks can distinguish an American from an Englishman from an Australian, etc. ad infinitum. It's not all in the regional dialect.  

[The MoUsY spell-checker]

Sola Catella

Hell, just after America won its independance from the UK, we had several people who were doing their best to ensure that Americans spoke a distinctly different way from English people. Samuel Webster was one of them. It was his idea to spell the word 'color' and not 'colour,' and he was the source of a lot of the American writing differences.

This reminds me of something I once read in a book about strange laws. There was once a law somewhere in America that made it illegal to speak English (as opposed to "American").  

[Emmanuela]

Quote:

I agree. The English language has been bastardized and given different dialects to make it sound almost exotic. Look at the Irish. I love them with all of my heart, but their 'native' language is not English...it's Galeic (pardon my spelling...) Technically, don't the people of England hold the deed to the 'English' language? I do not know...please, help me out on this one if you would, I would really like to know.

Well at the moment we're doing the best we can to ruin it. It's a very sad fact, but I was the only in the top set english class who knew what 'futile' meant. I mean, come on! Futile is no a hard word, but eveidently some people (who are supposed to be the best in my year) had some problems with it.

There is so much slang everywhere nowadays, it's pretty much it's own sub-language.

English is the most widelyl used language in the world, but I don't think that it represents England, and as The Mousy spell-checker said, it's the localised slang that shows the culture.  

[Kohy]

The MoUsY spell-checker

Sola Catella

Hell, just after America won its independance from the UK, we had several people who were doing their best to ensure that Americans spoke a distinctly different way from English people. Samuel Webster was one of them. It was his idea to spell the word 'color' and not 'colour,' and he was the source of a lot of the American writing differences.

This reminds me of something I once read in a book about strange laws. There was once a law somewhere in America that made it illegal to speak English (as opposed to "American").

To speak english? That's kind of...um....strict. xd Only thing is down here, you get penalized when starting to write in either American or British english then switch between the two in a story.  

[DarkElf27]

Kohy

Only thing is down here, you get penalized when starting to write in either American or British english then switch between the two in a story.

Darn, I'm screwed with my writing, then... I like Sabre, as opposed to Saber, but I write the American way for most of the rest of it...  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

I spell "sabre" in the British way too. It just looks cooler to me.

There's a fine line between colloquialisms and the outright ruination of the English language. I can respect some slang such as the way cowboys and those in the deep south speak. They speak that way because they were isolated from the rest of the country and their way of speaking evolved thus.

But those who speak in hip-hop and such haven't been isolated from the rest of the nation. They speak this way to stick it to "da man". They think that by butchering the English language, they're being all bad-a** and rebellious. All they're doing though is being stupid.  

[Aramethea]

You all make such great points that I have to agree with all of you. One thing - I don't see how English can be used to define a country like the US which, let's face it, is a "melting pot" society. If anything, some people's insistence on foreigners speaking only English (not everyone says this, but quite a few think it...) when they are in this country says more about us than anything else. When I hear this, I always ask one question. "If you were invited to Paris, would you expect all the Parisians to speak English?" The answer is invariably "No. I would make some attempt to learn enough French to get by." I have no problem with people speaking their own languages. But English as a definition of a country? No. I actually believe that we tend to force English on others. Rather than us making an attempt to better understand them, that is. I do hate to say, though, that I tend to disregard people offhand who use ebonics-like speech. To me, it is a foriegn language, it's useless and unnecessary. Let's start teaching kids how to speak their native tongue first (if it IS English) and not bother with this other crap.
Just my opinion. smile  

[Sachiko13]

i'm getting sick of people complaining about "illegal immigrants." unless the people complaining are Native American, they have no room to talk, as their ancestors were illegal immigrants at one point in history. and all this talk about making English the official language of the U.S. is bogus-we've gone this long without any problems, and it's only the racist people who have a problem with it. unfortunately, a lot of them are in charge of this country, which pisses me off to no end.  

[Sola Catella]

Sachiko13

i'm getting sick of people complaining about "illegal immigrants." unless the people complaining are Native American, they have no room to talk, as their ancestors were illegal immigrants at one point in history. and all this talk about making English the official language of the U.S. is bogus-we've gone this long without any problems, and it's only the racist people who have a problem with it. unfortunately, a lot of them are in charge of this country, which pisses me off to no end.

Correction: They were legal immigrants, as there was no law against the first Europeans coming through (there was no legislation about immigration for a long time) and then the vast majority of immigrants at the turn of the century came in through Ellis Island.

That said, I honestly don't see a problem with America not having an official language. I rather like the fact that we don't; where else would something like Pennsylvania Dutch have had a chance to evolve?