Search results for 'tag:Spelling tag:Lazy English' matching tags 'Spelling' and 'Lazy English'

Re: Is American English lazy English?

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:02:27 GMT

"I much prefer the attitude of the British. They have enough respect for the language to use correct spelling, clear enunciation and to observe the correct use of prepositions and general grammar. On the other hand, some Americans seem to like reinventing the language as they go."

To use a British word, bollocks! Americans at least pronounce all the syllables in words like "territory" and "secretary". Most of them also pronounce the letter "r" in all positions, where standart British English no longer does. They speak at a slower pace than British English, and as a British English teacher, I am told by my foreign students invariably that they find American English easier to understand. Their pronunciation is closer to the London pronunciation of the early 17th century than modern British RP.

I do not understand what you mean by correct. Do you mean your personal use of English, and do you measure other people's English against this? You seem to me to be one of those, who has never studied linguistics or phonology, let alone grammar, but thinks they can sound off about language in some sort of authoritative way.

Re: Is American English lazy English?

Anonymous — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:45:34 GMT

Noah Webster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster) had a huge influence on american english. He is responsible for many of the differences in spelling. Also, after the revolutionary war in 1776, many americans were only too happy to differentiate themselves from Britain by using different spellings, pronunciation, and grammar. Lastly, as someone already pointed out, many in the colonies retained certain ways of speaking that were later dropped in Britain.

Don't forget different regions of the United States may have very different pronunciations and usages of common words. For example, a native of Charleston South Carolina may sound quite different from a native of Boston Massachusetts. They will have little problem understanding one another, however.

Re: Is American English lazy English?

Elida — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 13:03:22 GMT

Mike In Japan wrote:
Hi Elida, welcome to the forums.

Well, we were talking about irregular English usage, and Anonymous had made a post with a couple of irregularities in spelling; hough for though, and peole for people, which I used as an example.
Marvin then joked about the way I should spell English. You see, most people in Japan (where I am) have trouble pronouncing 'l' so he joked by spelling it as Engrish.

Cheers :-)

First of all...let me tell you that the "ANonymous" was me.(before signing in cuz i was having problems with my registration...look at the names carefully.). As u can see i'm still writing irregular english...cuz that's the way i write when i chat. Regarding "ough" instead of "though" wasn't my mistake (if you look at the previous page you'll understand it. it was Marvin's mistake when quoting me). Regarding "peole" instead of "people" it was a typo(my mistake).

Well..yeah...i know you were joking around...just wanted to know why.

Re: Is American English lazy English?

Mike in Japan — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 12:37:56 GMT

Hi Elida, welcome to the forums.

Well, we were talking about irregular English usage, and Anonymous had made a post with a couple of irregularities in spelling; hough for though, and peole for people, which I used as an example.
Marvin then joked about the way I should spell English. You see, most people in Japan (where I am) have trouble pronouncing 'l' so he joked by spelling it as Engrish.

Cheers :-)

Re: Is American English lazy English?

Marvin A. — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 06:41:22 GMT

Wow, what a lot of nonesense.

Is American English simply lazy English with disregard for the fundamentals of the language, or is it a valid simplification of an overly complex and irregular language?

Huh? What are you talking about?

I was hoping nobody would ask, but since you did, I much prefer the attitude of the British. They have enough respect for the language to use correct spelling

How is modern British spelling more "correct"? Who determines correct spelling anyway? The differences in spelling between the US and the UK are mostly due to there being multiple forms that were considered "correct" at the time: such as "color" and "colour".

(The British have) clear enunciation

Oh they do, do they? Are you referring to RP, which is spoken by about 4% of the population, or are you referring to Glaswegian?

(And the British have the) correct use of prepositions and general grammar (and Americans don't)

Huh?

It is not my intention to offend users of American English, users of the imperial system of measurement or anyone else who cares little for international standards.

By your logic, the imperial system should be the correct one. After all, it was invented in Britain. They simply "dumbed down" their system (as you like to say), and switched to the metric system.

I know literacy levels in most western countries are declining rapidly. Could this be a contributing factor?

What does literacy have to do with it?

they use American enunciation

There are several dialects of North American English.

(The "American enunciation", grammar, etc.) all these also have been standardized

Um, no. There is no standardized pronunciation in North American English.

British is regarded as classical English?

"Classical English"? Modern British dialects, particularily RP, have diverged more from the English that both RP and General American are derived from. The non-rhoticity is one thing.

When one considers that the countries on the following list and a multitude of other nations have deep historical if not current connections with Britain and British English, I think it is quite likely that the use of Bitish English is far more widespread and popular than one might think at first glance.

Canada

Um. Canada does not speak "British English".

Oh, by the way, British English is taught in Australian schools, and I think it would be fair to say that Australians take great pride in the preservation of 'proper' (the Queen's) English

Australians speak *Australian English* not British English. They are not "taught" British English. Their spelling system is closer to the British standard though. As for Australians speaking the Queen's English, nothing could be father from the truth, in fact most non-Australians think that most forms of Australian English sound very much like Cockney.

Interesting that Australians take much pride in using British English - that actually would support the thesis that it'll hardly happen that the British English will be replaced by the American English, what do you think?

Um. They don't use British English... But they're of course not going to adopt an American accent. That would be like thinking that people from Berlin would adopt a Swiss German accent.

As nationalities continually interact around the word, shouldn't there be ONE set standard for both measurement and English? Emagine if you gave a spelling test to students from different English speaking countries. Q. What would be the correct spelling for the word "COLOR/COLOUR" ? (for example) Who would pass the test and who would fail?

Um. Both were used in the past as acceptable variants.

As nationalities continually interact around the word, shouldn't there be ONE set standard for both measurement and English?

No. English is a pluricentric language.

American English now is mostly ebonics lol

Rubbish

In a nutshell American and British English are but two dialects of ENGLISH.

They are not two "dialects". There's really no such thing as "American English" or "British English". There are many dialects of English in North America, as well as many dialects in the Britain.

I don't think I would consider British English "Classic English". British English and American English were assumable one in the same 200 years ago.

Exactly. But remeber, even at that time there was not just one form of English. There were many dialects.

I started this thread in 2003, and I have to admit I now feel a little silly about it.
Thanks to the input in this thread (and others) I realise my stupidity at having been so outspoken.

Good.

U.S. has a very diverse population. The pressure, naturally, is to simplify English so everyone, including the non-native speakers, can understand each other.

Rubbish. How has it become simpler?

They should learn to write properly, that is, English, proper English

Write properly? What is this "correct spelling" anyway?

So you're quite likely to hear a rising 'Australian' intonation in plain statements, for example â which to some BrE ears makes every statement sound like a question.

That's also found in North American English. It's associated with California English and Valley girls for the most part. It has very little to do with Australian influence.

Re: Is American English lazy English?

Guest — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 04:27:31 GMT

An interesting discussion. I think it's great that there are so many different varieties of English in the world today. It surely does add colo(u)r.
But if you have to write English for an international readership, you have to choose, which is not easy... I like following the Oxford English dictionary. It's basically British, but it uses spellings like organization, recognize... which makes it more international than normal British spelling, I think.
See: http://www.geocities.com/checkbahbah/ for a discussion.
Also, check out the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language, which is really great.

Dave

Re: Is American English lazy English?

Guest — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 20:13:53 GMT

"Is American English simply lazy English with disregard for the fundamentals of the language, or is it a valid simplification of an overly complex and irregular language?"

The first one.

I don't feel it's right the way Americans are treating this beautiful language. I think that in everyday speech it's fine; they can talk to each other any way they like, but I don't agree to them misusing a few words and changing spelling here and there, and then labelling it "American", as if it were an official language. They should learn to write properly, that is, English, proper English. To me there's no such thing as American English and British English, there is just English, and different countries have their own slang words, including America, but it shouldn't extend to writing, it should only be used in informal speech.

Mike in Japan, I don't think you should feel silly at all, and I can't see why it would be unrealistic to hope for global standardisation of the language, after all, most countries teach the same version, as was proved earlier on.

I don't mean to offend anyone, but I do feel very strongly about this, and I can't imagine anything one might say that could change my mind about it.

Feel free to correct my grammar

Re: Is American English lazy English?

mattman — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 08:41:10 GMT

It is perhaps better to dispense with the idea that there is only one English that is correct. In a nutshell American and British English are but two dialects of ENGLISH.

"They have enough respect for the language to use correct spelling, clear enunciation and to observe the correct use of prepositions and general grammar." SPELLING: Both forms are only different and are acceptable in their forms. Consistency in spelling within the same document i.e. British or American is important and just looks better if nothing else. CLEAR ENUNCIATION: I dare say that individuals will enunciate differently regardless of which English they are speaking. *Perhaps a reflection on education, social status, and other cultural influences. CORRECT USE of PREPOSITIONS: I am not so clear on as to what you mean on this one. IF you mean, for example, AT vs. ON the weekend, well, simple two differnt ways to say the same thing. Neither being wrong or better. GRAMMAR: Yes, there are some differences in grammar but, and I'll go out on a limb here, area better considered tendencies instead of clear-cut differences. For ex: Speakers of American English tend to use the present perfect tense (have/has + past participle) far less than speakers of British English.

On the other hand, some Americans seem to like reinventing the language as they go." This is an absurd and misguided statement.

The "dumbing down" is not a reflection of the language but a reflection of your personal view.

The reasons for the variations lie in history, time, and social change to name but a few. (without going into details).

Different doesnât mean wrong. Statements like "British English is better than American English" or âAmerican English is inferior to British Englishâ only represent the speakerâs opinion. The truth is that NO language or regional variety of language, for that matter, is inherently better or worse than another. They are just different.

Re: Is American English lazy English?

wumanfu — Thu, 25 Sep 2003 17:51:52 GMT

Hi, I just noticed a loose thread in my last post; thereâs a spelling mistake; and I neglected to pay my debt to a useful web page about Orwell. I guess, this is just an informal folksy type of interchange so Iâll come to the point. Newspeakâs minimalism and over-complex language may appear to be at opposite poles. However, both neuter concepts and leave the average person grasping for meaning. Whereas Newspeak in the novel deprived the population of necessary elements of vocabulary; over-complex language would feed a population with inert chunks of âword-stuffâ that couldnât be digested. American English straightens and widens roads made by ââhorse and carriageâ so that they are suitable for modern âthought trafficâ.

Re: Is American English lazy English?

Guest — Tue, 16 Sep 2003 06:07:48 GMT

There is nothing wrong with adapting, ammending or streamlining the English language.
It should evolve with us. Certainly the Americans seem to be insistant on this trend. O.K.
Q. So why do Americans stick to the antiquated imperial system of measurement?

As nationalities continually interact around the word, shouldn't there be ONE set standard for both measurement and English? Emagine if you gave a spelling test to students from different English speaking countries. Q. What would be the correct spelling for the word "COLOR/COLOUR" ? (for example) Who would pass the test and who would fail?

I feel there is a strong need to consolidate and standardise any form of communication that crosses ethnic and international boundaries.

Mitch in Japan