Further to the discussions here and here, I thought I’d enlarge on why I am relatively intolerant of such blatant illiteracy.
The English language is a rich, textured tongue; it is a veritable goulash of ingredients from the Latin languages of southern Europe layered with the Saxon and Danish influences of the north, lightly seasoned with flavours from further afield. Consequently it has greater expressive scope than each of the multiple parts that make up its whole. English is a flexible language, capable of expressing complex ideas in different ways, of elucidating subtlety, elegance and nuance in a manner that, say, French cannot as the latter lacks the range of vocabulary. Yet in the discussion over at Al Jahoms, I see this wonderful language, this multi-faceted parlance, reduced to the simian grunts of text speak. This is all the worse, because text speak should have become redundant with the advent of intelligent texting on modern mobile phones.
What I see is indolence, laziness, a couldn’t-care-less attitude to our native language that has corrupted it to a point where the writers’ output become incoherent, thereby rendering the effort completely meaningless. I encounter foreigners who express themselves more competently in English than these native speakers. It is not only a disgrace, but there is no excuse for it, despite some trying manfully to offer up some valiant excuses.
Some may suggest that language evolves. Of course. If it didn’t, we would still be speaking the middle English of Chaucer and I am not suggesting that we should. Nor am I concerned that the split infinitive is now perfectly acceptable, just as is starting a sentence with a preposition or a conjunction – that is the evolution of style and it enriches the language. However, what you observe on the linked exchanges is not the consequence of evolution, it is base corruption. Language is a means of communication and for communication to work, it has to have rules and structure; rules and structure that are commonly understood and accepted. The gibberish that I tried to read – and, frankly, gave up on – follows no rules, follows no structure and as a consequence, the messages were lost. Okay, so maybe the grammar pedants overplayed their hand a little, but the underlying point they were making was sound; make yourself understood by respecting, and using properly, the language you were gifted with.
I acknowledge the failure of the education system. After all, I was not taught English grammar at school. However, having some self-motivation, I set about plugging the gaps that the state education system left unfilled. I may not be the perfect writer, but I do try to write comprehensible English so that anyone who speaks the language can follow it. That is all I ask of others. While I may enjoy playing with it to produce entertaining prose, I don’t insist that others do; merely that they try to get the basics right; capitalise proper nouns, use punctuation, leave the CAPS LOCK key in the “off” position, use the appropriate contractions, take the time to understand the difference between they’re, there and their (as well as your and you’re, not to mention its and it’s) and please, never, never, never, use text speak. When I see text speak, I ignore it as I am simply not prepared to waste effort trying to decipher it.
Attempting to use English following the basic rules is not only relatively simple, it is a common courtesy one should extend to the reader. If you insist upon writing gibberish, then don’t be too surprised if you are dismissed as an ignorant illiterate. Which is precisely what happened over at Al Jahom’s.
Longrider,
I am curious why you think that they are native speakers of English? Evidence to hand suggests otherwise.
i dnt no wat ur talkin bout blud can u use easy wrds
(Being serious for a moment – if they can’t speak in recognisable English, how do they expect others to understand them?)
You could be right – however, non-native speakers in my experience tend to make an effort to be understood. And, the racist terms used had a certain native feel to them
I wondered who would be the first to do this. Congrats. 😉
I’m fairly sure that they are born in these isles, I’m simply asking why you think these literary outpourings should be classified as English, when the rest of your post suggests they are not?
Linguistics carefully identifies creoles and pidgins, and studies them at length, perhaps you are observing a sort of ‘regression to the mean’ reverse of these?
You’re correct; it’s not. I hadn’t thought of it as pidgins, but that would be a fair description. That said, I suspect that the writers assume that their outpourings are in English and they are responding to a blog post written in English, so that, reasonably is the language used for discussion.
Anthony Kershaw, going by the pictures and his name, was white Caucasian English or British. His native language should, therefore, be English. Some of those writing claimed to be family members. I am deducing from this, that they, too, are of the same stock. I can’t be sure, of course about his friends – they may or may not be.
Possibly. Bit difficult to communicate with those outside that particular loop, though, isn’t it? Although all I am suggesting here is that there is a failure on the part of native people to use their language properly when communicating with other native speakers.
Longrider, might one point out the flaming obvious that for a given number of people with above ‘average’ language skills, there must logically be a corresponding number with below average comprehension, reading and writing abilities?
Al just didn’t know who they were. Now he knows.
And where…
I share your views on the debasement of the English language. If you don’t spell correctly you are imposing on your readers, who then have to decipher what you’re trying to say.
That said, I read books written in the past, and quite like the old spelling of certain words, so would be happy if alternative spellings were allowed in some cases – ‘to chuse’ instead of ‘to choose’ for instance.
BTW I bet you checked your spelling when writing this post!
.-= My last blog ..‘If it takes a hundred arrows to bring down an elephant…’ =-.
Oh, yes! I suspect that a true grammar pedant will manage to find an error in there somewhere, though.