What nation murders the Queen's English in the most foul manner?

[whatever 0]

In their/our defence, English is one of the most frustrating languages to learn if it's not your first language.....

so let's hear it for those that do the most damage

soon to be gone

[RevJim 0]

I voted Chinese, but what I meant is the far eastern people. Engrish, as they call it, is just murdered by many. Most of which though, learned the language later in life. Those that learn it side by side with their native language are much, much better at it.

The Yanks do not murder the Queen's English, simply because that's not the english we speak.

I mean, come on, to us a Pom is half of a cheerleader's handheld cheerleading apparatus.

It's your life, live it!
Karma
RB#684 "Corcho", ASK#60, Muff#3520, NCB#398, NHDZ#4, C-33989, DG#1

[Kennedy 0]

Limmie bastards!

but eurotrash is worse.


edit to add: she ain't my queen!

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[whatever 0]

hot damn!

tied with the Chinese for first place.....

I can only hope the South African votes weren't all inspired by me personally....

soon to be gone

[Lee03 0]

The proper reply is.. Anyone that attempts to speak it!

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To put your life in danger from time to time ... breeds a saneness in dealing with day-to-day trivialities.

--Nevil Shute, Slide Rule

[EricaH 0]

Um, yanks don't speak the queen's english... it's called American.

There is no can't. Only lack of knowledge or fear. Only you can fix your fear.

PMS #227 (just like the TV show)

[Tonto 1]

Re The South Africans...

It's good to know we're doing our bit!

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[Cudlo 0]

Other: I'd have to say South Americans... I live in a Mexican neighborhood.. it drives me nuts.

Blueskies,
Charlie

_________________________________________
"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid." - Kierkegaard

[Amazon 7]

I think the WORST/MOST creative English I have EVER heard... bar none was in PNG Port Moresby... man you have to listen reallllly hard to figure it out.

[Kennedy 0]

Quote

Other: I'd have to say South Americans... I live in a Mexican neighborhood.. it drives me nuts.

That doesn't count. Spanglish is a whole other language. When I worked security consulting I dealt with construction sites/workers all the time. Some of them didn't know English or Spanish. Just Spanglish. The only reason I could understand them was a Colombian grandma. I may have dropped Spanish 101, but I can get along better in Miami or LA than any university grad.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[Kennedy 0]

Quote

Um, yanks don't speak the queen's english... it's called American.

Dictionaries contain the words that I use. That's more than I can say for the residents on London last time I went through.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[Guest]

When I was in Korea, a member of the Green Jackets told me, "You Yanks speak bastardized English."

I was at a loss at the time, but now I know what he meant.

It's the dropping of certain vowels. The 'a' sound should usually be expressed as "aah" in most cases, instead of "ay" or "aa" (New England style, as in 'at')

The letter "u" should be expressed as "yew" in almost all cases. For example, the word 'Aluminum' should be said as in "Al-yew-min-yuum" instead of "all-oo-min-um".

And so forth...

I wonder what James Marsters makes of this?

mh

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[metalslug 31]

The Queen's English ?
Much of english was put together from Latin, French and more other sources than I'm qualified to know about.
To word this another way...

"English is a language that lurks in dark alleys,
beats up other languages and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary."

Pick your favourite definition of English here.

[Guest]

Quote

The Queen's English ?
Much of english was put together from Latin, French and more other sources than I'm qualified to know about.
To word this another way...

"English is a language that lurks in dark alleys,
beats up other languages and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary."

Pick your favourite definition of English here.

eh, that's a good way to put it, but I like to think of English as the perfect language, in that it is polymorphic; e.g., it is able to adapt and mutate like a virus, and incorporate other languages into itself. I saw an ANECTODAL remark recently that French contains approximately 30,000 words - English contains hundreds of thousands, most of them borrowed from other languages. Latin was much the same way. A polymorphic language makes a people and culture able to adapt to changing situations, which is why, imho, than ancient Romans were so successful, and where their linguistic legacy lingers to this very day.

mh

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[TheRus 0]

I speak Southern-American... which, as most know, is yet ANOTHER completely different take on English itself. Although many claim that our version is closer to correct that the dialects found in the northern US.

But mine is a bastardized mix of Cajun/Texan/Arkansan, which apparently almost cancel each other out. Lots of folks make comments about how little of an accent I have.

Yeah, it's fine, we'll walk down the line. Leave our rain, a cold trade for warm sunshine
You my friend, I will defend... and if we change, well, I love you anyway

[andybr6 0]

People from Essex, by the way is that an internationaly known thing? I never realised that it was a Joke in the states but when i was in Sebastian last one of the instructers said "Your not from Essex are you?" when i told him i was English. Then followed by the yanks. I am sorry Bill Gates has lied to you, there is no such thing as English US and English UK there is just English . If any of you ask for directions in London please remember Leicester Square is pronounced Less - ter not Ly- chester.

------------------------------------------------

"All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

[Tonto 1]

Quote

For example, the word 'Aluminum' should be said as in "Al-yew-min-yuum" instead of "all-oo-min-um".

Would that be, as defined by Oxford, "aluminium? n lightweight, silvery metal"?

Murderer!



t

It's the year of the Pig.

[jaaska 0]

Oh... Speaking English is not a big thing...

Writing it is... It's one **cked up lg. in that sense.

When spend attended a high school (Texas ), I was astonished that 12th graders still did spelling tests - that's something that Finns do normally during their 1st and 2nd years of schooling. Of course the reason is NOT that Americans or other people with English as their first lg are stupid or something. It's just that your spelling (system) sucks BIG TIME:

he e
believe ie
Caesar ae
see ee
people eo
seize ei
seas ea
amoeba oe
key ey
machine i

all representing sound /i/

OR

letter just is not /a/, but something totally different (can't use phonemic symbols here, so I won't transcribe them)

dame
dad
father
call
village
many

OR

one sound has to be written down with several letters (church, shame AND on top of fact that the way some of these sounds are represented, when written, vary...) ETC. ETC. ETC.

Just go Google and type "English, phonetics, problems, spelling" etc. and you'll find just how big of a problem this is... Especially for us Finns who speak pretty much the way it is written (so Finnish is quite phonemic lg, one could say...)

[yoink 321]

sorry... gotta be the yanks

Dad met up with an american collegue a while back and while at the pub, the yank came out with "So how come you guys don't speak English properly over here?" Not tongue in cheek either, he genuinely meant it....

bloody yanks

Will

[Erroll 49]

Quote

Oh... Speaking English is not a big thing...

Writing it is... It's one **cked up lg. in that sense.

Too true!

Why spell phlegm when flem will do?
Knot vs not
Phthisis vs tisis.
Phsycologist vs sycologist.

There are too many to mention here.

I must confess that us 'damned Sef Efricans' have done our share though.

[nacmacfeegle 0]

Its us Scots, we have been mashing the language for a lot longer than everyone else...

--------------------

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[whatever 0]

well, well, look at which half of the world finally had morning roll around....
I had a feeling the voting would eventually swing this way.

I used to live in London and at the time I thought there was an amazing cultural diversity, but then I moved to Toronto and could hardly believe that there was more.....

as my boss said in a meeting one day:

'I can think of at least 8 people in this company who all speak some form of English, that if you put them all in the same room, practically no-one would be able to understand anyone else.... '

he wasn't kidding either....

soon to be gone

[velo90 0]

Viking seems to be pretty good at murdering the Queens English. This post for example.
How can a person be like 8 ?

[Nightingale 0]

English has its origins in the same language that German does.

All those "extra letters" used to actually be pronounced. For example "Knight", instead of being pronounced "nite" like it is now, was said "kah-nig-ht" Over the centuries, we got lazy and pronounciation evolved while spelling did not (but it was standardized).

Another reason English is so difficult, is although it has Germanic roots, it also has borrowed from everything else its come into contact with. Our language is a mix of sounds that are primarily Germanic, but have words with Latin and Greek roots as well, and those are pronounced and spelled differently...which is why there are "rules" in English, but so many f-ing exceptions! I felt so sorry for my English Language Learner (ELL) kids when I was teaching, because they learned one rule and tried to apply it to everything, and I had to explain "no, this, this, and this are exceptions...you have to just memorize them." It seemed like my students had to learn not just one language, but a mishmash of three!

[samhussey 0]

To be fair, I can understand most americans when they talk to me, and Im English through and through. I voted "other" cos whilst it may be hard to understand oriental accents, there are few things more difficult to translate than Geordie or Drunken Scottish (see Robin on Golf thread!)