Changing Language

[Coppit]

Language will always evolve no matter what individuals prefer. I was employed in insurance all my life from 1951 and the everyday 'schedule' was pronounced starting as 'sh', but over the years the American 'sk' has become ubiquitous.
I'm not particularly interested in sport but was not keen on the import of 'quick, quickest' in place of 'fastest' in motor sport. The former is now deeply embedded but yesterday I heard Rob Bonnet, BBC radio sports commentator speak of a 'quick bowler'.

Way do others think about that?

[Clanad]

Your observation(s) are certainly accurate... certainly not to sternuate towards... However, while the language change appears to be phenomenal it is not, neccessarily adventious.

We, here in the Colonies, often chuckle at the quaintness of the Mother Language, but at the same time seek to emulate at least part of it if desiring to sound educated or continental but without brabbling.

[Canary42]

We refer to slow bowlers, and in dancing steps we refer to slow slow quick quick slow. So quick bowlers.

Logical perhaps, but I too prefer fast bowlers.

[cactusdriver]

I hate the recent wrong use of the reflexive pronoun. I was on a budget airline recently when a member of the cabin crew said, 'Would yourself be wanting any bakery products today?'

[Old_Geezer]

I'd rather language changed where new words are needed, rather than because a less than intelligent population keep getting it wrong and then excuse themselves by claiming it's the language evolving. Worse is when we import for another culture/country for no reason other than presumably this same population has no pride in its own heritage and want to look fashionable by importing another.

Meanwhile fast and quick mean much the same, but since we already use the former for certain situation it simply sounds unintelligent to use the "wrong" word as if it made no difference. But the trend these days seems to be to sound unintelligent in order to 'fit in', or something.

[sandyRoe]

Playing fast and loose with the language. :-(

[Coppit]

... and pronunciation is changing rapidly. I ought to keep a list of words now being said differently from what they traditionally have been. Before the arrival of the Patriot missile at the time of the Iraq war it was always pronounced with a short a. The word patent has been spoken in two different ways for many years but 'pattent' seems to be winning.
I'm astonished that people like David Attenborough have fallen in line by talking about 'evvolutiion'. In fact this 'evv' sound is taking over, but I can't just now recall the word much used in the financial world which has been this changed.
Math is gradually coming into the language and I find that quite offensive as it is a totally unnecessary change. Mark Coles, a BBC man used it once and I felt like asking him why people should not remove the 's' from his surname.
Rant over.

[KARL]

There is a long list of similar and worse examples: "....with/from/to she and I....." (consider "with/from/to I" or is it "with/from/to me" ?), "...knowing that I may have chosen to do things differently in the past..." (correct would be "might"). The language is slowly but steadily turning into pidgin - an evolutionary phenomenon or cool ignorance ?

[cactusdriver]

We used to meet people, now we have to meet with them - another American import

[Coppit]

Or 'meet up with' ... . I make a point of always using simply 'meet' - but I'm in a diminishing minority.

[Sipowicz]

.....one man's meet........!

[AlwaysConfused]

When dealing with a customer on the phone, my boss often says 'sorry, what was your name?'. I tell him that if someone asked me that, I'd give them my maiden name. It really winds me up! It is and still is 'X'

[jno]

in America, when you meet someone it's a chance encounter; when you meet with them it's a planned one. A very useful distinction, which British English does not make.

[DaisyNonna]

Well known advert refers to "things sold to you and I"
Will not be using that firm

[Coppit]

jno I get the distinction you draw but if I say, "I'm off to meet Fred", that's no chance encounter.

[Peter Pedant]

cactus
then .... would you good self ....must drive you crazy

language changes
I dont think there is much we can doabout it

if you want amusement - the academie francaise has a language edition
the one I enjoyed - yes enjoyed was the one deploring people putting a z in organisme or communisme when it should be a soft s

and following it up with tranverser ( new word ) un lac as traverser could only be used for land

and accepting a nationality sud-vietnamien ( god it shows when I did this ) and protesting the gondree was sud-vietnam but vietnam du sud

Luckily we dont have an academy in England

[cactusdriver]

May I get a couple more off my chest?
Why can't people get their heads round 'similar to' and 'different from'?
And the one that really irritates - 'less people.' I know; I should get out more

[EDDIE51]

The original definition of 'quick' is 'not dead' ( as in the Biblical, the quick and the dead) so most bowlers / drivers / sports people can safely described as 'quick'.

[Jonathan-Joe]

To me, a "fast" bowler delivers the ball at high velocity; a "quick" bowler doesn't take much time to bowl after receiving the ball. Maybe Rob Bennet used "quick" in this way.

[kernowgirl99]

May I offer a couple of my pet hates? I hate the pronunciation of "leverage" as "levverage". This is everywhere used since the financial crisis hit home and, when it refers to a specific action in the financial world, I can tolerate it but it has spread to any mention of levers or leverage. The other thing which grates on my nerves is harassment pronounced as "harassment" as opposed to "HARassment".

On another topic, I do wish we had the ability on AB to green tick or red tick a poster's comments according to whether we agree or disagree with them. I so often find myself yelling "YES" to a comment but can do nothing to show my approval!

[kernowgirl99]

Sorry the first harassment should show "haRASSment".