Tuesday, June 11, 2013

American English kicks French butts. Kicks British butts too. Amurica rulz!

I have to remember to keep the grammar Nazi inside me well under control as I begin to grade the final papers.  After all, rmmbr, we r in txtn wrld. prblms w grmmr n sntnces n englsh can luk like polish! lynne truss goin crzy.

At least, we don't do this at our university at graduation; wait, do we?


I don't understand it either!

English rules now, and one awesome aspect of the language is that if enough people mess up the grammar then the mess becomes the norm.  I love it and hate it at the same time ;)

The phenomenal adaptability the language, in addition to this reason (!), means that it now reigns supreme as the language of commerce and science.  Even the French have no option but to use it.  Ha!  And that too American English (ht), not the stiffer British one.  Ha, ha!
Everyone in the world - except Dutch and Scandinavian footballers - learns American English because it is today’s lingua franca. It’s the principal means for disseminating ideas and getting work, as Latin used to be. As Luc Ferry of Le Figaro, writing approvingly of the new French legislation, noted last week: ‘Si Descartes n’avait pas écrit en latin, come le feront encore après lui Leibniz ou Spinoza, il n’aurait jamais été lu dans le monde entier.’ People stopped using French when that country went into decline and lost influence in the nineteenth century, and it was the same story for British English in the twentieth. But neither language has disappeared, and neither is ‘threatened’ by American English. It’s also worth remembering that as America declines, so will its influence and the importance of its language. No empire lasts for ever.
The American empire ain't declining no time soon, buddy! Yo, Amurica rulz! ;)


6 comments:

Mike said...

"Their, there, they're" haha brilliant!

Ramesh said...

Who says so ? I was not aware that in the club of English speaking nations, America belongs :):)

No chance my friend. Britannia still rules the waves.

Sriram Khé said...

Mike, I have a few posts on this grammar theme ... English is one crazy language ;)

Ramesh, you might as well outsource your comments to Professor Higgins from "My Fair Lady":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAYUuspQ6BY
Especially about the line about the English language in America ;)

Ramesh said...

Sriram - Ha ha; that's a classic. The theme of Americans defiling the Queen's language is attributed to many though. I was quoting Sir Humphrey from Yes Prime Minister :)

Ramesh said...

By the way, I thought with you recently found fancy for dukrijnkarane :), you'd have found the common error that is made . Britannia rule the waves is the correct version - there is no s in rule

Sriram Khé said...

I have never watched Yes, Prime Minister ... only Yes, Minister, which was simply awwwwwwwsome ...

Rule or Rules, who cares, when the British Empire and its English have been sidelined .... hahahaha ;)