Are there any changes in English language?

Mike Cash · 6 May 2016

madphysicist said:
I'm sure I have committed a good 4 or 5 of the sins on your list without even knowing it.

I'm equally as sure that had I been around English speakers on a regular basis all these years I not only wouldn't notice them I'd probably be engaging in them myself. It is incredibly hard not to pick up the prevailing speech habits in one's environment.

johnnyG · 6 May 2016

I was in the states for a long week in March, and didn't notice any of the linguistic weird-ities that I see online.

Besides a family gathering or two, I went to with an old friend to a st. pat's party in Rockford, IL, and there were maybe 25 people there. For both lang & culture, it seemed really comfortable, tho of course drumpf did come up and things were occasionally heated. I guess most were my generation--late middle age.

I get more odd stuff from our younger daughter, who spent a year in north america last year. But it's mostly cultural, PC-related attitudes rather than language quirks.

ElaineThomson · 16 May 2016

Edward T. said:
Too many to even mention. The example you cite (I play piano) is acceptable since a piano is an object. If he were to have said "I play THE baseball" that would be confusing, because baseball is a sport/activity and does not need a "the" beforehand. If you play THE drums, or if you play drums, it's acceptable. If you run track, that's acceptable. It would sound odd to say "I run THE track" since track is a sport. It depends on the situation. If he had said "I drive car" instead of "I drive THE car" that would be unacceptable. Now, he could have said "I drive cars" in a plural sense and been correct.

The misuse of the word "that" in English is another pet peeve of mine. I have very limited understanding of Japanese and do not know if the word "that" is used often. But it is certainly overused in English.

kei1980 said:
Hello,
I've been studying English for about ten years. A few years ago, I had an opportunity to talk with a young American boy. And he said "I play piano" instead of "I play THE piano." And I googled " I play piano." Then I found that English language changes like Japanese language changes.
I really don't like hearing Japanese language changes. For example "～してもらっても良いですか？"instead of "～していただけますか？" That sounds stupid and uneducated. This will be correct way to say in the future though.
Now I have a question. Are there any changes in English language that irritate you?

Here in the UK we would be unlikely to say 'I play piano' - we would say 'I play the piano'. Dropping the 'the' is an American habit I think! One recent change which irritates me is when people say 'Can I get...?' instead of 'may I have...?' . I think this is influence from the USA. Not necessarily a bad thing - as others here have observed, languages are constantly evolving. My pet peeve with this phrase is that one 'can' do it, but if you are asking for permission then the correct word to use is 'may'.

Mike Cash · 16 May 2016

ElaineThomson said:
Dropping the 'the' is an American habit I think!

I think I can understand how it must sound to you. I get the exact same feeling when I hear our beloved Uklander friends say "in hospital".

I listen to a few podcasts from the BBC and I can never quite get over how universal the use of "called" instead of "named" is. ("A person called Tom Smith", for example).

lincstreff · 16 May 2016

This is certainly not the first time I've come across British blaming language pet peeves on us Yanks. We are an easy scapegoat, with our media influence around the world.

Well, you can't blame us for pronouncing the letter 'H' as 'haitch', since we don't do that at all. (And I pray we never do.)

As for musical instruments, I have no doubt that "the" is gradually being dropped. Is that such a bad thing, though? Why was it even necessary? Language evolves to be more efficient. It bothers the pedants, but it is a natural process.

By the way, did you know that the expression "head over heels" originated as "heels over head"? As in, opposite the way one normally is, which makes more sense given how that expression is used. Why did it change? Probably the fault of the Yanks, no doubt.

kei1980 · 17 May 2016

It's like Osaka dialect VS Tokyo dialect. I've heard of in the UK, they used to say "in future" but because of "Back To The Future", they stared say "in the future".

madphysicist · 17 May 2016

kei1980 said:
It's like Osaka dialect VS Tokyo dialect. I've heard of in the UK, they used to say "in future" but because of "Back To The Future", they stared say "in the future".

I don't know if that's true, but you can hear people saying both of these in the UK.

I do often see people getting very up in arms about "Americanization", or "Americanisation" as we like to call it in the UK. Of course every country wants to hold onto their identity and when you get mistaken for an American a lot you want to distinguish yourself all the more. It's understandable, if futile.

I don't care that much about different phrasing, but the one thing that irrationally annoys me is when you want to change the language of a website into English and it shows a US flag. Ah, you say, but the population of the US is much greater, it only makes sense. Well then change the Spanish flag to Mexican and the Portuguese flag to Brazilian, for god's sake let's be consistent

kei1980 · 18 May 2016

madphysicist said:
don't care that much about different phrasing, but the one thing that irrationally annoys me is when you want to change the language of a website into English and it shows a US flag.

I would be very upset if I were English. By the way, I've decided not to say " I play piano." I think if a native speaker say "I play piano." That sounds okay, but if non-native speaker say "I play piano." then it just sounds wrong. This happens Japanese language spoken by non-native speaker. I think accent, intonation, speed are important.

Are there any changes in English language?

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

johnnyG

Sempai

ElaineThomson

Registered

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

lincstreff

後輩

kei1980

Kouhai

madphysicist

先輩

kei1980

Kouhai

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