Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
When my mother graduated from college, in the early '30s, she had to prepare for the oral portion of the teacher certification exam by obtaining a dictionary that had been published in England. Back in those days, you could not be certified to teach in NY state unless you affected a British pronunciation for spoken words. In order to pass that portion of the certification exam, you had to use pronunciations such as "la-BOR-a-tree" instead of laboratory, "con-TROV-ersy" instead of controversy, etc.
And... standards change.
Just as many of us would have a difficult time adhering to the language standards of the 1930s, some people have difficulty meeting "modern" standards. It is up to the certifying authorities to set those standards, and then to alter them as times--and technology--change.
And... standards change.
Just as many of us would have a difficult time adhering to the language standards of the 1930s, some people have difficulty meeting "modern" standards. It is up to the certifying authorities to set those standards, and then to alter them as times--and technology--change.
"I seen," "I had went," "for sell," etc. have never been correct. Their usage is just wrong, it has nothing to do with modern standards. If teachers cannot teach their students to read and write in the accepted correct manner - not vernacular- they should not be teachers.
I hold myself to this same standard, as I am hoping to earn a teaching license in the next few years.
In my locale, one often hears even amongst highly-educated people a dropping of the infinitive; “the carpet needs cleaned, “the dog needs groomed.” Another common form of usage is appending the preposition “at” to a question about the position of something; “where is the book at.” To me, this one is particularly odd, as most colloquialisms involve a simplification of language, aiming for shortening of what’s to be said. But appending the preposition means extra work and extra speech.
But the prepositional floridness is not consistent. One typically hears: “Help me get off the platform”, instead of “help me to get off of the platform.” Even Microsoft Word, as I type this, offers the dainty pedagogical advice of dropping the “of” in the above sentence, ostensibly for “clarity”.
A lot of times, regional colloquialisms arise not necessarily due to improper education, but because of linguistic heritage. For example, a lot of Midwestern German American communities have adopted certain ways of saying English phrases which are technically improper in English, but proper in German. The same thing happens in other communities, for example its not uncommon to hear a Cuban-American in Miami say "This thing weighs!" where someone in another community of another cultural background might say "This thing weighs a lot!" "This thing weighs" sounds incomplete in English. This thing weighs what? But in Spanish, at least in the Cuban dialect "Esto pesa" which literally means "this thing weighs" is used the same as "Esto pesa mucho" (This thing weighs a lot/It is heavy) I feel thats what causes a lot of regional grammar quirks.
I have to restrain myself on this forum - it's too tempting to write a post to everyone correcting their grammar, and never mind the spelling. I'd probably get myself banned before too long.
About spelling, I blame the texting; no one spells anymore. Worst, however, is the "there, their, they're," "its and it's," and other combinations like this. Can hardly keep from becoming another grammar Natzi on this forum, but don't think it'd be too appreciated by the recipients! (I'm with Retriever on the punctuation)
You mean grammar NAZI, correct? I know, let me guess, you just spelled that incorrectly to see whether we were all paying attention...right?
For example, a lot of Midwestern German American communities have adopted certain ways of saying English phrases which are technically improper in English, but proper in German.
I live not far from a city famous for being settled by German-Catholics (that is, persons mostly from the southern part of Germany). My command of German language is far from fluent, but I can get by. Yet I detect no consonance between the local ways of speaking English, and what would be grammatically or stylistically typical in German. Indeed, I am surprised at how little familiarity with German has remained in this region - quite the contrast, evidently, from the situation with Spanish in south Florida.
I live not far from a city famous for being settled by German-Catholics (that is, persons mostly from the southern part of Germany). My command of German language is far from fluent, but I can get by. Yet I detect no consonance between the local ways of speaking English, and what would be grammatically or stylistically typical in German. Indeed, I am surprised at how little familiarity with German has remained in this region - quite the contrast, evidently, from the situation with Spanish in south Florida.
The Spanish-speaking immigrants to the United States are much more recent than the great waves of German immigrants, which mostly arrived in the 19th century. Most Spanish speakers have arrived since the middle of the 20th century. Of course, in south Florida it was the Cuban Revolution of 1959 which precipitated the modern arrival of Spanish speakers.
German speakers once thrived in the United States. German-only schools - even public schools - were once common, and monolingual second- and third-generation German speakers were not uncommon. There were hundreds of German-language newspapers. Remember Lawrence Welk's thick German accent? He was born in North Dakota, but didn't learn English well until he left his hometown in his 20s.
What put the nail in the German-speaking coffin was World War I. Sauerkraut became 'liberty cabbage' (yep, the 'freedom fries' idiocy was foreshadowed a century earlier), cities with German names discarded those names, high schools dropped German from their curricula, and those of German ancestry faced extreme pressure to discard any and all vestiges of their ancestral culture in order to prove they weren't fifth columnists. Nativism is nothing new.
Though not necessarily logical, the American rules for multiple punctuation with quotation marks are firmly established. (See here for a brief explanation of the British style.)
Commas and periods that are part of the overall sentence go inside the quotation marks, even though they aren’t part of the original quotation.
Correct: “The best investments today,” according to Smith, “are commodities and emerging-market stocks.”
Incorrect: “The best investments today”, according to Smith, “are commodities and emerging-market stocks”.
(The original text quoted above is as follows: “The best investments today are commodities and emerging-market stocks, not domestic stocks and bonds.”)
I'm American. It's understandable that I play by American rules.
Quote:
Originally Posted by VoxTerra
Perhaps consider moving to a place where everyone does everything the way YOU want them to so you won't be annoyed and irritated. Problem solved!
I have such a place. It ends just at the inside of my front door!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
