Do You Speak American?
This morning I began reading Do You Speak American? by Robert MacNeil and William Cran. (My mother brought me an autographed copy from a conference she attended in Chicago.)
Do You Speak American? is the sequel to The Story of English, and apparently there is a television series that ties in with the book(s), and I am trying to remember if The Story of English is one of the texts which was part of the syllabus of a course I took in college called The English Language. It was the grammar course all writing and literature majors were required to take. I will have to go rummaging through my bookshelves and see if I can find the book. I remember it being an entertaining read.
Having read the introduction, I have a feeling that Do You Speak American? is going to be an eye-opening experience. Given my classical education with all of its structure and Latin and Greek and Shakespeare and Austen, I know that I am a bit of a language snob. There are rules of grammar and spelling for a reason. At least half the fun of knowing all of the rules of grammar, however, is figuring out how to break them in new and creative ways in order more effectively paint a picture or convey a tone. Deliberately incorrect spelling, on the other hand, just gets under my skin. I don't have much of a problem with slang or dialetci variations, but the "cute" stuff if just annoying and makes the people doing it look either silly or uneducated. Kwik, nite and lite are examples that come immediately to mind. I suppose that when it's up on a billboard or shop sign, the point is to be attention getting. Is distracting the same thing?
One of the assumptions--that street talk or ghetto language is merely bad or lazy English, the product of poor education--I found myself agreeing with more than I expected. But it's not just about level or education and poverty. Social and economic conditions and constrictions play a role as well. Language is a social and cultural institution of its own, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum.
Do You Speak American? is the sequel to The Story of English, and apparently there is a television series that ties in with the book(s), and I am trying to remember if The Story of English is one of the texts which was part of the syllabus of a course I took in college called The English Language. It was the grammar course all writing and literature majors were required to take. I will have to go rummaging through my bookshelves and see if I can find the book. I remember it being an entertaining read.
Having read the introduction, I have a feeling that Do You Speak American? is going to be an eye-opening experience. Given my classical education with all of its structure and Latin and Greek and Shakespeare and Austen, I know that I am a bit of a language snob. There are rules of grammar and spelling for a reason. At least half the fun of knowing all of the rules of grammar, however, is figuring out how to break them in new and creative ways in order more effectively paint a picture or convey a tone. Deliberately incorrect spelling, on the other hand, just gets under my skin. I don't have much of a problem with slang or dialetci variations, but the "cute" stuff if just annoying and makes the people doing it look either silly or uneducated. Kwik, nite and lite are examples that come immediately to mind. I suppose that when it's up on a billboard or shop sign, the point is to be attention getting. Is distracting the same thing?
One of the assumptions--that street talk or ghetto language is merely bad or lazy English, the product of poor education--I found myself agreeing with more than I expected. But it's not just about level or education and poverty. Social and economic conditions and constrictions play a role as well. Language is a social and cultural institution of its own, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum.
posted by minervasowl at 11:12 AM
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