Notes on Language Part. I
What I've realised lately is that I can understand everything the Americans say, every single word and phrase and piece of slang, and they have far more trouble with my speech. I suppose I've been exposed to more American talk than they've been with English speakers, what with the exported film and tv and my previous US travels. Perhaps I also use a wider range of slang than your average American, much of it fairly obscure and regional (for example, 'knackered', 'grebby', 'Billy no mates' are surprisingly enough not widely understood here). This puts me in the position of being able to understand perfectly everyone I talk to, but having to adjust my speech so they can fathom what the hell I'm talking about. This can be quite frustrating, especially as I really enjoy using all this rich and satisfying British slang. Hmm. Not quite sure about all this though, what do people think?
On a fairly unrelated language note, my Linguistics reading has been turning up some interesting things about the American English/British English divide. You know how the English say 'Herbs' and the Americans say 'erbs'? Guess who's correct? That's right Americans, you get the medal. There's no more reason to say the H on the beginning of that word than there is at the beginning of 'Hour' or 'Honour'. Also, I hate to break it to you, but the American use of 'Aluminum' instead of 'Aluminium' is also more valid. The guy who named the stuff called it Aluminum, but the English spontaneously decided to call it Aluminium because it sounded better next to all the other substances: Strontium, Helium, that sort of thing. There, how do you feel now, English Speech? Not so smart any more!
On a fairly unrelated language note, my Linguistics reading has been turning up some interesting things about the American English/British English divide. You know how the English say 'Herbs' and the Americans say 'erbs'? Guess who's correct? That's right Americans, you get the medal. There's no more reason to say the H on the beginning of that word than there is at the beginning of 'Hour' or 'Honour'. Also, I hate to break it to you, but the American use of 'Aluminum' instead of 'Aluminium' is also more valid. The guy who named the stuff called it Aluminum, but the English spontaneously decided to call it Aluminium because it sounded better next to all the other substances: Strontium, Helium, that sort of thing. There, how do you feel now, English Speech? Not so smart any more!
posted by susie r at 2:15 PM
7 Comments:
Oh, I'd forgotten about 'knackered'; we said that to someone in New York and they did this smutty laugh. Apparently, they hadn't heard of the word too until a few years back, when some British Tourist told them it was how people felt after a fulfilling sex session, as in "man, that was good: I'm knackered!" Ahem.
Surely this whole language/pronounciation thing is context sensitive anyway? Look at the range of different pronouncitations in the UK alone (Graaaarse for us Southerners, Gr-asss for you Northern lot, for example) or stuff like Rough and Plough (why isn't it pronounce pluff?)
Or, to get more obscure perhaps, check out how many people get Jekyll from Jekyll and Hyde wrong, pronouncing it Jek-ill rather than the more correct Gee-call.
Langauge, pronounciation, slang... it's all in flux, so don't have a cow, man. Or, alternatively, stop faffing around and Northernize them! (Or should that be Northernise... :P
Are you sure they're not just telling you they're right?
Like I always do?
No, they think they're wrong too. And are you telling me you're not always right?! You were my universal authority Lauren. You were my god.
Oh well!
To answer you Nick, what exactly do you mean by context sensitive? Your answer confused me a bit, explain for the thick people in the audience.
Also I can explain the other things you mentioned according to this week's Linguistics homework. Seemingly random regional changes in vowel sounds, (e.g.grass) and instances where words which ought to be prounced the same by the looks of spelling, aren't (e.g.plough, rough, though) are due to a surprisingly regular historical process of sound change. There are actual identifiable stages of this stuff if one wants to get into historical linguistics. It's all perfectly explainable! The plough/rough thing probably came about during the Great English Vowel Shift, where many many words ceased to be prounounced how they are spelled.
My use of alumin(i)um is ornery and thus depends entirely on where I am. Back home, everyone was English and said aluminium, thus I said aluminum. Here everyone is American so I say aluminium. It's rather hilarious (:
I must sadly admit I don't know what grebby and Billy no mates are, but how can people not understand knackered? I thought it was a universal word...Hmm.
The Great English Vowel Shift, hey? I'd be thinking the unification of language would have helped as well (one type of spelling rather than many regional variations), no? Mind you, any consistency in spelling is welcome: yes, Chaucer, I'm looking at you.
I didn't explain myself very well above; context sensitive was a poor choice of phrase since I didn't go on to explain myself; I meant that some people pronounce words differently depending on where they are, like andetheriel mentions above.
I guess I should have said regional sensitive, hence my ramble later on....
Pronounciation is like anything connected with language though; it's ripe for changing. Language is in a very large state of change right now: observe how many people feel the need to use emotioncons in letters/messages to convey a meaning they feel words will not properly express.
Example: "Your cat's dead from bird flu? Bizzare, but very sad" :-(
I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing though; new adjectives pop up all over the place and people don't really bat an eyelid: what did people call Chavs before they called them Chavs? There's an answer out there, but it's damn difficult to recall.
Anyways, I'm just rambling now, and I'm being a total hypocrite considering how conservative, with a small 'c', I am towards certain language-related things (such as the semi-colon, bless it).
I'm leave your blog in peace.
Ok, I am still confused. I guess this is comforting because language is different everywhere and always changing, so I should feel better as a stranded Yorkshire speaker...?
You raise an interesting point with the emoticons and stuff. So in the nature of how language is used it is always changing, always in a constant state of flux, right? So what is the information age doing to this process? Is it just speeding it up, or evolving the actual nature of sound change? Course there are different things going on with pronounciation/sound change and changes in slang and written language, so I don't really know where you'd start with all this...
Then of course you mentioned the idea of language conservatism, which I have always found very interesting. People link language inexorably with cultural and national identity, so there's the whole argument that attempting to stop changes and borrowings is a way of preserving cultural history. However this process is just how languages grow, so it often strikes me as almost perverse to try and halt it- after all there's no such thing as a pure language....
Always aluminium, never aluminum. No matter which is correct.. erbs. erbyerbyerby. So strange. it definitely takes the americans 3 or 4 seconds to register that a) my accent is different and b) understand what i'm saying. But totally agree, understand allll american speech.
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