Dave (Cameron that is) has a good idea

[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to agree, but I'm sure "English" is spelt with a capital "E". /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Here in Edinburgh spelt is a kind of flour, spelled is spelled spelled even when pronounced as 'spelt'.
 
My spelling may not be so good sometimes - mainly due to pugdy fingers on small keyboard keys .. but considering some "true Brits' language capabilities .... would be hard to distinguish "foreigners from true's ....."
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to agree, but I'm sure "English" is spelt with a capital "E". /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Here in Edinburgh spelt is a kind of flour, spelled is spelled spelled even when pronounced as 'spelt'.

[/ QUOTE ]

Harrumph! Oxford Dictionary:

"spelt: past and past participle of SPELL"

Fowler's Modern English Usage:

"...If the past tense were distinguished from the past participle, the preponderance of -ED would have been slightly greater. But there has since been a movement (advocated in the original edition [of Fowlers]) towards -T"

Yours pedantically, etc
 
[ QUOTE ]
Quality of response content wins over quality of English every time for me!

[/ QUOTE ]

+1 /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Well my spouse is not from UK, she does however speak fluent English, also fluent in Russian and Georgian. Just to add she can also read and write in all three, they all have differnt scripts, Georgian being by far the most difficult.

What amazes me is that sometimes at UK immegration she appears to speak much clearer English than the person on the immegration counter.

Do not even start about the girl I spoke to at a call centre this week whilst checking my credit card. I am sure her name was not realy Jane Smith. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Andrew_Knight has the evidence - we're on a slippery slope, accepting poor quality written and spoken English in almost everything we see and hear. Txtspeke allowed in your higher English essay next? I sincerely hope not. Our language has an ability to convey subtle messages which will be lost if we don't try to preserve it. In a couple of generations no-one will be able to understand, never mind enjoy, the standard classics if we're not careful. Sorry, rant over. My mum was a writer you see.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Andrew_Knight has the evidence - we're on a slippery slope, accepting poor quality written and spoken English in almost everything we see and hear. Txtspeke allowed in your higher English essay next? I sincerely hope not. Our language has an ability to convey subtle messages which will be lost if we don't try to preserve it. In a couple of generations no-one will be able to understand, never mind enjoy, the standard classics if we're not careful. Sorry, rant over. My mum was a writer you see.

[/ QUOTE ]

IMHO the biggest threat to the English Language is not from the East, South etc. It's from USA exported TV films / serials etc. that are in "USA English" ... americanese as I call it .. Listen to and look at the generations growing up now ... you may as well be in the Bronx etc.

Computers also .. spell checkers that highlight words such as COLOUR ... and correct to the american version ... COLOR etc.

I agree with another poster .. it's not the persons coming in etc. that we should worry about. My wife is Russian but her english is better than a lot of people I can point a finger at in good ol'blighty. A lot of people who are "foreign" can speak better english than the English
 
I found it interesting that I posted initially in order to poke gentle fun at the OP - whose point I happen not to agree with - but succeeded largely in provoking accusations of pedantry and purism against myself! Or is that against me, I can never remember.

On the wider level, I agree with you. The decline in written English is both saddening and a cause for concern. English is ever-evolving; the aplgsts fr txtspk regularly cite that fact in support of the contention that their preferred style is as valid as any other. As someone who derives an enormous amount of pleasure from reading books of all genres and styles, I find it very hard to agree with them. Something very valuable, but subtle and indefinable, is lost if we don't try to preserve the quality of our written language, while neverthless allowing it to develop over time.

But that's fred drift. I don't believe one's writing style or punctuation skills should have any bearing on the right to participate freely in an internet forum. There are many amusing, knowledgeable and - unlike me - succinct posters on YBW, regardless of the 'correctness' of their writing.
 
And as the OP I was not entirely serious - but I do have a horror of using "smileys".

A further thought - if so many are unable to write reasonable english (deliberate lc "e"), does it follow that comprehension is similarly lacking? Is that, perhaps, the reason for the interminable COLREG threads?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top