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Anyone have strong views about the use of the singular when talking about football teams? Eg Liverpool is at home to ... (Also music bands: Led Zeppelin has a new album out.) It's an Americanism of course. Hate it.
Have to plead guilty as charge for the American misuse of the English language but then again, if we circle back to the theory of the harms created by British colonization, perhaps we can blame the British for American speech.
David Hackett Fischer's "Albion's Seed" is an interesting read that among many things argues that American regional speech patterns have roots in British colonization. An example:
"Take speech, for example–something we all are aware of. New Englanders have a noticeable twang. It is a way of speaking that developed from the dialects of eastern England, such as the “Norfolk whine.”...
"Now contrast these two patterns with Virginia's. Yankees chose to say “I am,” “You are,” “She isn’t,” “I haven’t.” Virginians, even the wealthy, preferred to say “I be,” “You be,” “She ain’t,” “I hain’t.” They often dropped the “as if” in favor of “like": “He looks like he’s dead.” They dropped or softened their R’s. No respectable Puritan would say “book learning,” but in Virginia, where intellectuality was not so highly regarded, that was the preferred term for education. These peculiarities of vocabulary, syntax, grammar, and accent were derived from the South and West of England. In dress the Virginia elite mimicked the styles of London.
"Most interesting is the speech of the Delaware Valley. It was here that arose the flat accent, which linguists call midland speech, stretching from mid-New Jersey all the way across Middle America to Utah and beyond. Appropriately enough, that dialect is derived from the North Midlands of England–Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, et cetera. An amusing example is the way people translated the noise their horses made. In East Anglia and New England they neighed –related to the Dutch neijen . In Wessex and the Chesapeake they whickered , but in midlands of both countries they whinnied ."
1. Awesome - Seeing the sun rise over Mt. Fuji on a crisp morning is ‘awesome’. Giving your order to a waitress in a restaurant and her repeating the two items back to you, is a basic part of her job spec which she doesn’t need to herald with an ‘awesome’ because she got it right!
2. ‘erbs - it’s f.....g ‘herbs’ you inbreds! You don’t hear them say they once saw ‘erbie ‘ancock in concert while in ‘onolulu, ‘awaii.
It's totally herbs with a silent 'H' so pronounced erbs
Use of the word 'of' instead of 'have' is a common one in the classroom. As in 'I would of got my homework done if my cousin had not called for a visit'
I think "speaks to" actually goes back to 17th-century England and the phrase coined by the Quaker George Fox "speaks to thy condition", meaning something rings true about your life. For example, QPR speaks to thy condition - I've supported the Hoops since 92/93 and experienced far more long suffering pain than if I didn't follow them, but there have been fleeting moments of absolute joy along the way and of course the friendships that have formed with other Rs are ultimately what counts the most. Yes for me, QPR definitely speaks to thy condition.
The phrase jumped across the pond in the 1950s when Quaker Bayard Rustin the (black and gay) American Civil Rights leader coined the term 'speaking truth to power' in a peace pamphlet he wrote. Speaking/speaks truth to power is now a term used the world over and Americans have shortened it for everyday use to simply "speaks to".
[Post edited 3 Sep 2020 20:05]
Well, I never.
That speaks to my stupidity.
"The opposite of love, after all, is not hate, but indifference."
And “ reach out to “ for “ contact” is very trendy these days but massively irritating . But “ he was like “ meaning he said has to take the biscuit , or should I say cookie? . Great thread, this . Gives me comfort that I’m not the only grumpy pedant out there !
Bad English is gross. All too prevalent, unfortunately. It seems de rigueur to talk like a thick person nowadays. If i read Liverpool is at home, it would make me queasy (it did). I wouldn't have called that an Americanism, though. Britain has plenty of that going on itself, innit. Standards are plummeting rapidly, thanks to the gift that is social media ahem.
I've heard my own daughter refer to me as 'dude' before (shudders), although the worst must surely be 'my bad' because so many bloody people say it. Rest assured, i'll never be one of them.
The word "twice" seems to have been replaced by "two times", especially on TV adverts, as in "new painkiller acts two times as fast". What's that all about?
Are you ‘aving a laugh me old china.Its every Londoners right to drop their aitches if they want to. I ‘avent pronounced an aitch in almost 60 years and I ain’t gonna start now.
Well Eliza, the poor pronunciation you refer to is a regional practice which is not necessarily widespread within the London region. In comparison to the nationwide H-acide practiced over the pond, which is just tomfoolery!
'Always In Motion' by John Honney available on amazon.co.uk
Bring back the fcuking football, that's what this suggests to me, no offence/offense to anyone. We can always start up the same thread 6 to 9 months from now like clockwork.
I'm pleased with the original post as I actually thought it was my bad. This has only appeared in the last couple of years and as someone who tries to write, it was increasingly bothering me. Absolutely.
Whilst we are on topic, it is the letter 'H' Aitch not Haitch.
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