h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Gotten is one of the old english versions of got is it not? I believe it is one of those words which, when the US was being founded , hadn't yet formally settled one way or other for their pronunciations. Thus when the two languages split, the US kept one version and British English kept the other. Theirs a few like this.

One thing I have noticed though is certain attraction between US university students and old english. There appear to be some, more individuals here and there) who seem to be trying to reintroduce certain older forms of the language.

I think -en must also have meant plural in some forms as in the unix computing world you sometimes here a group of servers, or unix boxes referred to as 'boxen'. Just an affectation but then so much of language is.

I'm still trying to work out what the qualitative difference is between the Hollywood 'omage (said in a french stylee with a long 'a' and g sound) and the normal everyday 'homage' (with a short 'o') is.

I read the name of this thread and assumed people would actually be talking about how language is evolving. Instead, a lot of you are only complaining about the "degeneration" of your language. To me, *that* if anything is a bit sad and ignorant.

Language changes; that's what it does. People shorten words, lump them together, use them in different contexts with slightly different meanings. They borrow from other languages and make new words of their own, often even if near synonyms already exist (seriousness - severity). When speakers of a language stop doing this, the language dies. You're basically complaining about how vital English is.

Now, my mother tongue isn't English, so the changes that some of you find irritating aren't very personal for me. I just find it a bit amusing that you're condemning change while writing in a language that has been so completely reworked in the last thousand years.

Claiming that people shouldn't say "gotta" or "wanna" or "med'cine" is just plain sad. Why should people sound like they're reciting the Encyclopaedia Britannica? Spoken language should flow.

I'm not saying that you don't have a right to be annoyed. It's just not nice to be so judgmental.

I think that people have always been "judgmental" about the way others speak. We judge people by HOW they communicate, not WHAT they are saying. I'm not saying that it's a good thing - it's just what we do ....

We assume people are "of a certain class/type" by their accent, by the words that they use, in the same way that we judge them by what they wear or by their age or gender.

Language and the use of it is one of the ways we form impressions of others.

Just as if someone posts here using txt spk I will assume that they are "of a certain age" - and because they use txt spk and I can't always take the time to decipher it, I may not give that posting the attention that it deserves.

As I said - I don't agree with it but it IS what we do.

Oh, and I agree with you Ictoan, the Hollywood 'omage dives me mad!

I think it's an affectation that others have picked up on because they are uncertain of the correct pronunciation.

Oops - drives me mad - like typos that you see after hitting "Post"

Can't say I noticed much moaning about language changing here, Alna!

It would be ridiculous and pointless in any case. Anyone who's read Chaucer or Shakespeare would realise how much English has changed. Even the difference between Chaucer and Shakespeare is quite marked!

Aside

Someone mentioned how 'gotten' was used when early English arrived in US. It's the same with 'dunny', slang for toilet in Oz, which we don't use now in England. But 200 years ago we used 'dun house' for tolilet. So the aussies kept it, but it died out here. Evolution of language is fascinating.

As an aside ( - topic drift alert!!!)

A few years ago I heard an interesting radio show about a musicologist from Italy who found that Italian communities in Australia were one of the few places in the world where some traditional Italian folk songs had survived.

The same thing has happened apparently in the US, isolated communities had retained folklore, language and music from their original countries.

There are some places in the US where the language used is very similar to Elizabethan English. And some areas in the Netherlands where it's possible to speak to people in Old English and they will (just about) understand you.