Text 575, 97 rader
Skriven 2004-11-26 03:43:36 av Greg Sears (1:153/307)
     Kommentar till en text av George Pope
Ärende: F unny story
====================
AND THE WINNAH IS.....

Our Lingo's Gotten Rotten
Matthew Engel -The Guardian
Wednesday January 16, 2002

  When this column crossed the Atlantic a few months ago, I planned to
rant and rave at an early stage about the use of language. Somehow, the
world got diverted for a while. But I was reminded of the original plans
a couple of weeks back, when the BBC's Middle East reporter, Orla
Guerin, managed to use what may be the ugliest word ever invented:
"gotten", instead of "got". This was quickly followed by Barbara
Castle's attack on Tony Blair, for "railroading" his cabinet. The verb
is common enough in British usage, but the strange thing was she was
talking about the railways.

  Unless there is still an undiscovered jungle tribe somewhere, every
language mutates. The mutability of English is part of its success.
There remain two dominant strains of the language: American English, and
what American linguistics experts call British English - if they ever
refer to it. The danger is that there will soon only be one dominant
strain.

  This is not a complaint about what's happening in the US. At its best,
American English is smarter, sharper, more malleable than our own. (It
is also weirdly old fashioned in some ways. No British waiter would
offer you "a beverage", unless it were hot Bovril, and "apparel"
vanished as a spoken word soon after Shakespeare.) No, this is a
complaint about Britain. We have become so in thrall to American culture
that we are losing our own sense of the linguistic dividing line. Things
have gotten real bad.

  Over the past year, there have been countless examples in the British
media of usages that do not exist in our version of the language - did
not exist, anyway. This must happen all the time to some extent, but it
is probably worse now than in any era since the 1950s because the most
potent invention of the 90s, the internet, is US-led, and because
Hollywood has recaptured something of its old dominance. But in the 50s
we at least watched films, pictures and flicks rather than movies.

  The Daily Mail recently had a headline using "monkey wrench" instead of
"spanner". The Daily Express had the expression (first used of Calvin
Coolidge) "weaned on a pickle", which was probably understood by about
three readers. The Royal Mail had an advert talking about "apartment
blocks", which the copywriters must have thought sounded fancier than
"blocks of flats". I have seen signs in London pointing to "the
elevator". This is not just pedantry. Last year, fire officers in West
Sussex complained that children there now thought the emergency number
was 911, as regularly dialled in American dramas, and not 999.

  Regrettably, the Guardian is not merely guilty, but perhaps the worst
offender of the lot. Colleagues I like, admire and even revere have
taken to using words like "hike" to mean increase rather than a tramp
across the Pennines, the phrase "waiting table", nouns like "ouster" and
"rookie", and the betting term, as yet unknown on any British
racecourse, "parlay". Politicians run for office, not stand. One
Observer columnist, a bloody good one, even concocted the ultimate
mid-Atlantic sporting metaphor: "a googly from left field". And how the
hell did "unfazed" creep in?

  Legal jargon (despite the best efforts of Marcel Berlins) is no longer
even a battlefield; the British are supine on the ground. Because most
of us spend far more time watching US courtroom dramas than British
ones, we now talk of "taking the stand" and "appealing verdicts". Soon
barristers will be pacing the floor and witnesses will say "So help me,
God".

  All this might be fine if there were any two-way traffic, but almost
nothing has gone in the other direction since the Beatles' heyday. The
only recent example I can think of is "shag", which was popular at least
briefly (the word as opposed to the act) after the release of the
relevant Austin Powers film.

  Only the sinless should cast the first stone - or rock, as an American
might say - and I certainly don't qualify. Once you have been here a few
weeks, then inevitably your understanding of the distinctions starts to
blur, especially when the kids come back from school demanding candy.

  In itself, each single infidelity does not matter. The language has to
move on. It's right to take in and use helpful words from whatever
source. It would be patently stupid never to use "kids", or indeed
"railroaded". But once we lose our awareness of what our language
actually is, then we lose any sense of what it should be. The French
have a 40-strong academy hopelessly trying to police their own porous
linguistic frontier. Britain has no border guards at all and I may have
to do the job single-handed. So help me, God.

Cheers,   ,       .________________________________________________.
       ,___|._/_. | Trucking through life with a smile on my dial! |
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