The language that one learns in his/her youth is that which is "correct"--mainly, as that is what one speaks/writes. As time passes dimwits, idolaters, innovators and linguists bugger-up one's cherished mode of oral/written communication.
Being born in the '30's, raised in the 40's and Tertiaried in the 50's I had a fine grasp of American english (Mrs York, my 9th grade english teacher made sure of that). Though raised in the South, my pronunciation of most words couldn't be faulted. In the 60's, I departed the land of the grand old flag for the land of koalas, kangaroos, billabongs, and Foster's.
With my egress, unfortunately the preservation of 'proper' pronunciation and usage of American english hit the skids and redneckazation surged to the fore. One may ask, 'what do you mean'?
I respond--in the late 1940's, after the war, truck transport became important in the recovery and expansion of the economy and the semi-trailer, a relatively rare vehicle, became a dominant form of the transport of goods--the drivers of which were 'good ole boys', who were damned good truckers; however, their form of the spoken word left much to be desired.
Many were of the rural persuasion where the three R's were of low priority. I reckon that when posed with a newish word in the written form, many letters were pronounced in their basic form, particularly vowels. When presented with the word 'semi-trailer', out of ignorance, the letter i
in semi, was, unfortunately, pronounced semEYE-trailer instead of the then existing semEE-trailer. This subsequently was shortened to "I drive a semEYE" (part of a convoy no doubt).
Compounding this tragedy, essentially all words beginning with semi have been bastardised i.e.
semEYE-circle, semEYE-colon. The disease has spread, so that the prefix quasi has become quAsEYE and multi to multEYE. AARRGH!!! and pitui.
As if the above was not enough, There is the word with a cotton field/inarticulate sportscaster pronunciation, D-fence which once was defence. Just think of that arm of U.S. Government, the D-partment of D-fence. Deity save us all.
Have a nice day, already.
AC
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10 comments:
Hey, bro -- I just happened by on a whim (Bloglines where I catch the latest posts is currently Down...) In any event, you completely forgot the American Indian tribe, the Hop-EYE.
Ala-bee, WiFi, black eye, Quays-EYE Moto, a-LUM-nee, fungi, octo-pee, apple-pee... I think I'm getting confused. Just kidding. The English language can be very confusing, even when efforts are made to speak it well. Have you thoroughly thought through making that rough dough sell for naught? Ought you two to, too?
TONFM, DOTTER1
GJ-I thought i'd just sneak up on you.
R-I had to whinge about something as Im short on subject matter--more english according to AC in future.
I enjoyed the post. My German wife, who is fairly fluent in English, really got a kick out of it.
Blood-eye fine one, A.C.
WP4--does your wife have any favorite incongruities of the 'english' language she'd like me to expound upon??
Cat--I just thought of common mispronunciation that isn't restricted to the US, viz days of the week Mundee, toosdee wensdee thursdee frydee satdee(here), sundee.
AC
What do you call the 4 things on top of a stove,upon which you put pots? I've heard "burner", which I use, and "eye". Any other names?
dotter1
Kid,
The only other name I can think of is 'hob'. You doing a crossword puzzle??
AC
Well, us teens have alot to do with that (hence the misspelling of 'a lot', if it wasn't for this spell check whatchyamanot I'd have no idea it was wrong). I believe that the English language hasn't devolved... yet evolved into a... less comprehensible language of which it is easier for us 'county folk' to understand. People from different parts if the county have different accents, as among other countries (the words 'I' and 'oi').
I'd prefer it not to happen... but something has to eventually right?
If you really want to see English so twisted, so... wrongly used, you need to look at game forums (the ones us young'uns like). An example would be:
wh1 u do dat, 1mz g0t liek fidy p01ntz th4nk eu very much
Translation:
Why did you do that? I have around fifty points thank you very much
I do that quite often as is the "norm" these days.
And don't forget about pop-EYE's chicken =)
Good words.
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