September 29, 1975: What is Up With The English Language?

Why would that be?  This African American dialect is no more “right” or “wrong,” “proper” or “improper” than any other dialect of what we call English.  After all, it is not like the rest of the United States speaks the same English as English people in England. Today we have a sizable portion of our nation demanding that English be named the official language of the United States, an obvious reaction to the increasing amount of Spanish speaking immigrants to this country.  Newsflash, language fans!  The Spanish were here waaaay before the English.

English as a language started sometime around 550 CE when Germanic people immigrated to England, bringing a language based on Germanic tongues (and Old Frisian, whatever that is). This Old English as we call it lasted until about 1066 when the Normans conquered England, bringing a strong French and Norse influence to the language, gradually transforming English into Middle English from around 1200 to 1450.  By 1500 Early Modern English was forming and lasted until about 1700 when we began Modern English.

There is no such thing as “proper” or “improper” English, or any other language. Languages are constantly evolving and meanings as well as pronunciations and spellings change over time.  What you think of as “wrong” today might well be the preferred form of a word in the future. When things are mispronounced or misspelled often enough, the accepted form often becomes the “improper” form of the word.  The term “all right” is two words in Standard English, while “already” is one word.  Why?  It seems so many people have “improperly” spelled “all right” so often for so long that the “alright” version is now acceptable (but not to me).  For all you English speakers that try a little too hard to sound “smart,” the word “niche” is pronounced “nitch,” not “neesh!”  Do not get me started on “often” with the “T” pronounced, or “white” with an audible “H.”  How about your uncle’s wife, your “aunt?”  Do you say “ant” or pronounce it like “ont?” (One of those irritates me and I do not know why!) Another oft mispronounced word is cache, which should be pronounced “cash” (as in “stash”) but is often said “cash-ay” like the scented thing in your closet (sachet).  Why is it that in England they have colours while we have colors? Which is right? Tyres or tires?  You get the picture.

Then there are the regional varieties of dialect. What we call “pop” is called “soda” elsewhere, and what we call a “drinking fountain” is a “bubbler” in some locales.  People that speak the Southern drawl variety of American English come across as simple to some uppity Northerners, while the New York City accent is (according to linguists) the most irritating American accent to the majority of Americans.  Again, why?

Despite English having forms that are almost unintelligible to other English speakers (think hard corps Cajun or Cockney English), the English language has become the Lingua Franca (French tongue) of the world today.

Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Ironic, is it not?