[General] the language poser

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pesasu

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Over time there has been a gradual slip in the use of English especially in Asia. I am of the believe that any language spoken has to respected and in fact 'held sacred'. In expressions and pronunciations, English has taken a beating and I feel the pain. I walk in total embarassment as I see advertisements that reaches out to millions with grammatical errors and strange construction mode. Millions seem to be spent on flyers, pamplets and brochures with the need to edit taking last place and in some cases editing becomes not relevant. It hurts.

How do we get it right again is a poser, a definite poser. There has to be an international group of English experts overseeing its use and arresting the misuse/abuse. We might 'beat our chest' and call English a universal language but we should not abandon the thought that it has a beginning and there is a particular nation that holds it in its heart.

When I was taught English it was in a way that made me respect it and enjoy it. Things have changed and grammar has become a word that is disliked. I did travel quite a bit and must say that verbs get missing in conversations.

I feel sad that despite billions being spent and with generous sharing through initiatives like yours 'the universal language' is not uniting the expressions and pronunciations.

It needs a revolution, maybe.

For English, I remain,

Yours truly,

Jack RSN
 

Tdol

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Who would listen to them? France has such a body, but it has failed to prevent the flood of English loan words, so it's debatable whether such a body would have much effect. The practicalities of trying to assemble such a body would be a logistical nightmare and reaching a consensus would be difficult on may issues.
 

5jj

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People have been making similar complaints for over four centuries.

Language changes, pesasu. The language you admire may be that of the 1950s, or that of Charles Dickens, or of Jane Austen, but there were people in those days complaining that the language had declined during their lifetimes.

No group of experts can, or should, in my opinion, arrest the 'misuse/abuse'. Today's slips are tomorow's grammar.
 

birdeen's call

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Who would listen to them? France has such a body, but it has failed to prevent the flood of English loan words, so it's debatable whether such a body would have much effect. The practicalities of trying to assemble such a body would be a logistical nightmare and reaching a consensus would be difficult on may issues.
I don't know much about the French body, but its Polish counterpart seems to work quite fine. Our language changes and they don't try to stop it. They try to make the change controllable. The fact is that the degree of their success vary but people seem to be fond of their existence generally.

Of course, the case of English is very much different.
 

Hortence

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The language is alive and changing, it becomes organic when it passes through the speaker to give us an infinity of shades and tones. Why not rejoice? In Quebec we have a law and organizations to preserve the integrity of the French language and slow the progression of the English language and the results are mixed. It will be the speakers who will have the last word and that is just fine! C'est la vie!

:)
 

Guillo1

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Language, as any other social construction, is a living thing. It changes over time and space, and a lot faster than one would thing. No "pure" languages remain, and often the different forms that a language takes in a specific time and place carries the prints of its people's history. It is not something to frown upon, but something to be fascinated with IMO.
How you use any language is all about what you want to communicate and who participates in that exchange. Many times the grammatically correct academic orthodox way of speaking is the exactly wrong thing to use!
I am a native spanish speaker, but I teach english and do Spanish Translation, specially website and commercial pieces localization. Trying to adecuate a global language to a specific cultural environment is fascinating and takes a lot of knowledge. Spanish has a body like the one you describe... while it is good for studying and keeping records of the language's evolution, it is doomed to being one step behind the actual evolution of Spanish. It would be the same thing with english.

That said, hello, I'm here for all your spanish-related questions, and will be picking your brains regarding my own use of English!
 

Vidor

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not a teacher

Awful, awful idea. English is what the people who speak it speak, not what a bunch of white-haired academics say it is.
 

Tdol

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Re: not a teacher

It's one of those ideas that is floated regularly in discussions, but is never going to get onto the drawing board, much less off it IMO. There are so many variants of English, that you would end up with such a huge body that institutional paralysis would be the inevitable result, and that is assuming you could get agreement on doing it and the make-up of the body. Imagine the arguments there'd be just about where to locate it.
 
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