100 years ago things were different and now we've changed but should we embrace this or reject it?
The Queens English society reckons that we should have a English academy to stop the language changing. Many people think it won't make any difference.
The French, Italian and Spanish have their own type of Language academy but then again you can quite happily go to these countries and find someone who speaks English anyway, so the point in keeping the countries language safe is useless because so many people are using our language.
New words are coming into the language from many different places, text speak, other languages an new technology. Creating an Academy of English will try to stop of these new developments within the language which most of us have come to be used to.
There are some people who say that rather than trying to control the way we speak, let us choose our own way and teach our children how people can use the same language in different ways. The new technology which is so well know by our next generation is encouraging them to create new words for things the couldn’t otherwise describe such as ‘defriend’ (a way of breaking up a friendship)
Children and teenagers have also been hugely influenced by the media who themselves have created different new words which can be used such as ‘emo’ but then again people that are supposed to be protectors of the law are definitely not protecting the language as police created the word ‘chav’ which is now in the oxford dictionary.
The academy would be in charge of our dictionaries, our rules and regulations, telling people what to say and how to say it, what ever happened to free speech? The rules and regulations that say we are allowed to express ourselves in any which way we like (as long as we don't offend anyone)
When was the last time you sat on a bus or a train and saw someone reading the English dictionary like you would a novel? They want us to waste extra taxpayer’s money to allow someone to create a new type of dictionary which would apparently revolution the way we speak. It really wouldn't, we only use the dictionary if we can't spell something or don't know what something else means.
They also say it will stop new words, that aren't officially English being used but what about the people that have created their own type of English such as Hinglish. People will never be allowed or able to control the way everybody uses their own language.
A self confessed pedant, Oliver Kamm said: “What a great idea — put all the pedants in one room so that they can argue with each other till the cows come home, and leave the rest of us to get on with actually using the language.”
Change of anything is inevitable, those who try and live in the past and reject the new words and way of language will be left behind and will soon not be able to describe things in the same way as others. Standard English will never be forgotten but it will be tweaked and changed in slight ways over time and what we know as proper English will change.
From Chris and Roger:
ReplyDeleteAimee,
This is an excellent summary of the main arguments in the debate. Some really good journalism, especially in the opening. Really enjoyed reading this. Well done!