Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the thousands of people that got
excited over the weekend about the Jubilee. One piece of Queen-related news,
however, has caught my attention.
It has been reported that the Queen's English Society (QES)
is closing down. I admit, I wasn’t aware of the society until I read the news (contrary
to the probable belief that I founded it).
QES, founded in 1972, fights (fought) against the dropping standards of the
use of the English language. It says (said) "Our aims are to improve standards of
English, to encourage people to know more about our wonderful language, to use
it more effectively and to enjoy it more.”
Unfortunately, due to Twitter and texting, the news that language is evolving in a distasteful way is far from hot off the press.
I constantly find myself getting excited over spotting typos, and recoiling
in horror at ‘potatoe’ frequenting menu blackboards outside of restaurants. But I know that this reluctance
to see change is becoming increasingly unpopular.
QES has said that the reason for closure
is that no one wants to join committees anymore - but reading between the
lines, it's obvious that it also has something to do with the recent, rapid evolutions of language.
First came the drop of Waterstones’ apostrophe, now this. It may
be a society that few of us have heard of before, but it's closure is not a good sign. I
may have to start accepting that ‘you’ will become ‘u’, but it doesn’t mean I
will ever respond to anyone who addresses me as such.
Why? Why is it such a big deal... somewhere along the lines did we forget that the reason language exists is to aid communication. The evolution of language, like technology has a focus on trimming the unnecessary fat and allowing us to live in a world where hopefully everyone can communicate equally, and easily.
ReplyDeleteLets face it, the teaching of Shakespeare and use of showy language and pointless grammar benefit nobody in the modern day and the only point-provers who still enforce it are doing so purely out of traditionalism and often to gain a sense of intelligent well-being against the less academical.
Like i said before:.....
if u cn read dis msg n it meks sense 2 u then y else dus it matter? it servs its purpus
:)
Reading that has given me a headache, so it didn't serve its purpose. Shakesphere is unquestionably the greatest writer to come out of our country - and he has benefited our country in many ways!
ReplyDeleteLike I said, I see that argument - but just as insane as it would be to take my favourite dress and piss all over it - just serving a purpose isn't enough sometimes. Communicating effectively is a lot more than using as few words as possible - punctuation and spelling makes a massive difference.
P.S. wud u hav read n undrstd my blog pst as much if i wrte it lyk dis?
ReplyDelete*Shakespeare - the man who couldn't find the words to express himself properly so he made a few up.
ReplyDeleteIn many ways, a modern example would be Joey Essex or Jade Goody.... word inventors.
Not quite hailed as the same level of genius.
p.s. yes, i would have... thats exactly my point! I remember getting told off in school for putting a comma where commas dont go or some other nonsense, and i thought 'did you understand the sentence and what i intended to say? Yes. Then whats the point, why bother?' There are practical uses of grammar i'll admit... but a vast majority is wordsmith vanity!
The fact that language is changing is depressing. There is nothing more frustrating than reading posts of FB using the "lazy" language. English is not my second language, and I know from personal point of view, how hard it is to understand, never mind the changes. But even from a purely academic point of view, it is distasteful and diminishing to human intelligence. People are becoming far too lazy, and I really hope that the society will not go down this slippery slope.
ReplyDeleteGG x
It is depressing, you're right. I read an article today about the Government upping the ante with primary school children and their spelling, so hopefully we'll eventually head back in the right direction and people will learn to respect the English language again :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!