Yeah but no but

[delboy3]

There's another extremely annoying chavvy phrase that has appeared in the last year or so: instead of saying, "he said", "she said", "I said" etc, it's now "he went", "she went", "I went" or "he goes", "she goes" et bloody cetera. Can anyone explain where this has come from and why it seems to have caught on so quick? Even my wife is doing it!!

[Guinevere]

Also: "i was like 'Oh my God' and he was like 'totally' and I was like... etc etc

Has come over from the States.  Drives me mad!

[jno]

That was common speech when I was a kid half a century ago; probably just one of those things that goes in and out of fashion.

[bartholomew]

When I lived in London 10 years ago (now I am 26) most young people I knew used this, so it is not that unusual.

[KittyGlitter]

What about people that say "I'm lovin' it" and then thump their heart. That has to be the most annoying thing! Radio DJ's like Jo Whiley tend to talk like that so they sound up to date with the teenagers on the street.

[Skids]

Its a natural degeneration of the English language (no, its not the language evolving) caused by the falling education standards and by the ingress of other cultures into our own, especially American. The MoD bans the use of 'Americanisms' from any of its formal documents. (Americanisms being anything they've done to mess up English, like a z where there should be an s, silent h, x instead of cks, different spellings like color or aluminum, and so on and so on). A stance the government, and the country, should take as a whole.

[Laura-sakura]

It was common when I was a child, over 10  years ago! (p.s- so were chavs, bloody media)

[ah9815]

Why do people get so worked up about changes to language over time? A language lives and is not, contrary to the belief of some of the linguistic pedants on here, set in stone. That is why dictionaries are updated, we don't all write like Shakespeare, blah blah blah.

Upholders of lingistic purity almost always fail! So if the majority of the population see the need to say "He went" instead of "He said", let them. "He went" isn't a new thing, by the way - it's been around for years. Who knows, if it really catches on it might be the norm in 20 years.

And then people will be harping on about changes to the language and saying, "Why don't people say "He went" anymore". See?

[doofah]

I agree, though I did come up with a theory about this when I was a kid - always been a writer and lover of the written word, ever since I learned to string words together on paper.

I believe that "He went, she goes, and I was like" are actually used in speach simply because they also imply an action - they were never used in non-face to face chatter as far as I ever saw....

"Mark went " [holds shoulder and grimaces] "ARGH! that hurt "

Now to me the only fault in that was a missing "like this and said"....

"Mark went like this " [holds shoulder and grimaces] "and said 'ARGH that hurt!' "

Naturally this catches on, like abbrieviations - we're suckers for efficiency....

I don't think it IS americanism - but I think you may find a mix of cultures are responsible, in the last 20 years it has become possible to talk to people all over the world cheaply, and to MEET new people worth talking to. 20 years ago, how many 14 year olds would you have met who could name 15 people from all over the country who they have regular conversations with?

I think it is evolution, and to be honest, i don't think it's a bad thing at all - dialects, accents, regional slang and quirks will always exist, just like fashions and fads, the language will always change - as long as real english words are used in text for real english documents, books, training and learning material, and people can understand english spoken accurately, where is the problem?

Maybe for those realising we're not the current youth anymore - no longer relevant in the trendsetting squad, it's an ego kick, but other than that it's harmless.

[jno]

well said doofah, and your theory about this way of talking being used only face-to-face makes sense. Language does change all the time, but there is almost always a reason for it, whether it's to make a fine distinction from other usages, or by analogy with older words (notice how 'under way' is becoming one word, probably by analogy with undertake or motorway or something?), to describe something new (eg computer features) or just to create a code that excludes other listeners (eg much teenage slang).

As I said yesterday, this 'I went' usage has been around for 50 years to my personal knowledge, probably more, and I don't think it's particularly American at all.

[miss_chase]

"Yeah but no but" is a phrase used by a sterotyped teenage girl in Little Britain (comedy programme). This is probably why it seems to be about a lot.

And by the way I agree, spoken language has far differing characteristics to written language and we should just go with the flow, man. My personal "yeah but no but" is the "I'm like..." etc etc. I blame the kids (I'm a teacher!).

[kaktus]

I am not an expert on the English language (I am Danish), but I have a friend who studies English and one who studies Danish and they both say that a language simply can not degenrate it can only evolve. when people says a language degenerates, it is a subjective response to the new flows in a language.