'K so anyone who doesn't know nothing about no history of no language thinks they know the English language is going to hella in a hand basket. Well, they are wrong.
Texting is often criticized for its unique (aka bad) spelling and interesting (aka no) use of punctuation. Mark Twain says it best, "Before the spelling-book came with its arbitrary forms, men unconsciously revealed shades of their characters and also added enlightening shades of expression to what they wrote by their spelling, and so it is possible that the spelling-book has been a doubtful benevolence to us."
He also says "I don't see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing. I have a correspondent whose letters are always a refreshment to me, there is such a breezy unfettered originality about his orthography. He always spells Kow with a large K. Now that is just as good as to spell it with a small one. It is better. It gives the imagination a broader field, a wider scope. It suggests to the mind a grand, vague, impressive new kind of a cow.
- speech at a spelling match, Hartford, Connecticut, May 12, 1875. Reported in the Hartford Courant, May 13, 1875
No punctuation? That is just classical. The ancient Greeks had no need for punctuation and they turned out some of the best literature ever written. It wasn't until later that punctuation was added to songs so the singers knew when to take breaths. Do you need someone to tell you when to breath? That's called fascism.
And we also don't speak English English anyway. You know you wouldn't want to for nothing. We speak American English, or Americanish for short, which the Brits think is just atrocious.
The thing to remember about texting: form follows function, not the other way round. Punctuation was invented for clarity. Therefore, if the msg is clear w/o something then its function is no longer relevant.
One day my collective generation will raise an angry collective fist in the air as high as our old collective arm will reach to the lazy kids who instead of saying "for shiz" as we correctly did when we were young folk, will then say "fiz." Lazy efficient independent thinking delinquents. And on that day when I am an old man (if I live that long), I will look at whatever new fangled device is hot on the street and say, "the brainwaves kids are transmitting these days are so ungrammatical. Americanish is going to the dawgs!"
Just because kids are lazy doesn't mean they're right. Of course, that only applies to people younger than us. And by us I mean me, because otherwise you would have a nice argument to use against me.
ReplyDeleteI would never argue against you. I am in favor of Rachel Reddoch. I am pro Rachel!
ReplyDeleteI think it applies to new words, too. I hate when someone says, "That's not a real word." Damnit, I just said it, so it's a word.
ReplyDeleteExactamundo!
ReplyDeleteIf we never invented new words, guess how many words we would have total? Yep, none.
But I like some of the old rules. Seriously, how excited were you when you learned the proper way to use "whom" or "further". It was empowering, wasn't it?
ReplyDelete