Hello again,
No matter what problems exist in the English language, one fact remains constant. It is the only
language that is spoken on every continent and country in the world. As for the idioms lol, rotfl, and the like, they are used in written form to indicate how a person is reacting to a joke or a funny situation that someone else has written about. If you cannot see a person that you are communicating with, you have no idea how he or she has reacted to your written communication unless you receive a response. It is much quicker to say "rotfl" then to elaborate with, "I am rolling on the floor laughing." The written word does not contain accents and words are normally spelled the way they are meant to sound. However, although we may write "I am not going to do that" if we were confronted the other person that we are corresponding to in person we may say,"I ain't a gon do that." That is the strange thing about the English language. We can write it perfectly, however we say it according to our surroundings. Therefore, we may want to speculate as to what, exactly is being murdered. The written English?, or the spoken word. My father was born in Canada. He was French Canadian Canuck and was born in Quebec. In high school, I opted for French as a foreign language. It was Perisian French. Half way through the year, my teacher asked me why I was doing so poorly in class. I told her that the French that I was being taught was not at all like the French that my father spoke.
Getting back to the computer text. Letters to replace sentences were first used by teenagers that wanted to keep their conversations with others secret. There are still letter messages out there in cyberland that many adults have not figured out yet because when we do figure themout, they are changed. Also, those in other countries that do not speak English pick up on textspeak a lot easier than typing out whole sentences. I was born in Massachusetts and have lived in Indiana for twenty-five years. I met someone from Boston last year and we got into a conversation. About five minutes into the conversation I was lost. French class all over again. I could not understand a word he was saying. He had a thick Southy accent and I came from Taunton which is thirty-five miles away. In the states, the language does not change from state to state, but rather from different locations whithin the states. Radio and Television people whose job is to speak to the public used to be trained (because I don't know if they still are) to learn to speak Universal English. This would be pronouncing the vowels correctly and pretty much going back to the basics of the language as it was spoken in the beginning of the Colonization of America. Devoud, of course of using words like 'fortnight' 'ye' 'thou'. The Olde English words were picturesque (I spelled quite well when I was younger). and did lend an air of sophistication, however they also created confusion among people. How the language is spoken is irrelevent because ours is a land of freedom, a land of a myriad of different cultures, a land of self expression as in the way we invent words to convey different thoughts, and a land of might. I added that because our military power comes in all colors, religions, and cultures, however when it comes to defending our country, all races answer the call. What is relevent, is how we write our words. As Peter pointed out "Their" "They're" and "There". It is knowing what each spelling represents and using the right spelling for the word. It can get confusing if you want to "write" about the "Right" way to do things. In conclusion, what is right about our language is that there are no symbols or "`" marks over letters or upside down question marks. The English language is the easiest to understand in it's written form making it acceptable in almost every country. Now, I ain't never said that I haven't run down the Apples and Pears to wash me boat on occasions, however if we go all the way back to the days of the Pilgrims me uncle will have to come out of retirement. He was a Town Cryer in Cape Cod. Actually, there is a Pilgrim village in Plymouth, Massachusetts and to this day, the villages speak the old tongue. I agree that we should never forget the language of the past, however we should not forget to look ahead to the future either.
GOD BLESS YOU
~Mike~
http://www.countryvalues65.com