LATEST MOAN FROM YOU AND ME - 2022

Jekle and hyde here.
Always has been.

Never made a connection between that and mrs. Jeeekle

 

I used to be pedantic about spelling and grammar but more recently I find myself having done a partial U turn.

I have friends who can't even read or write, through no fault of theirs. I also have friends who can read and write very well who have emigrated, so their language is evolving. And I work with a very talented young guy with dyslexia, who can read and write but struggles.

All of this leads me to the conclusion that if they can communicate effectively it doesn't matter too much if it's far from perfect.

Language is evolving, as it always has. Remember, the English language is itself a mish mash up of many different languages.

 

Language changes with time, like it or not. Otherwise, we would still be using Ye olde English.
And as for grammar and spelling - I am learning Scottish Gaelic and that is a huge adventure in grammar and spelling. Words like Oidhche (night) or even a modern word like coimpiutair. And names - Calum is spelt Chaluim if there would be a comma ahead of it!

 

Useless trivia alert:

When we see Ye Olde English, and people say it as yee oldie English, that is completely wrong.

The Y in Ye is not supposed to be Y. It is another letter of the alphabet that looked a bit like a Y and has long been dropped. It's pronunciation was the same as modern day th sound. The e on the end of olde is silent. It serves to capitalise the O at the start.

So Ye Olde English, is just the old English.

 

There is a popular saying among statisticians.

Correlation does not equal causation.

If there is a correlation between behaviour and vocabulary, it is not automatically safe to assume one causes the other. At the extreme end of the spectrum, poor coincidence can not be ruled out. I remember a website that showed correlation between completely unrelated things. I seem to remember one example being something like margarine consumption correlating with some astronomical phenomenon.

But let's ignore pure coincidence for now. It's easy to see that poor vocabulary and bad behaviour can both be outcomes of other common factors. Neurological disorders like ADHD for example, or lack of sleep, a difficult home life etc. Then there are social factors. I think I've mentioned before on another thread how I deliberately adapt my vocabulary to suit the environment. When I have to visit the factories I have to become one of the lads. If I 'talk all posh' they'll be suspicious of me and I won't get them to open up to the man from head office who's down there snooping about learning what they do. Then when I've gathered my intel, I talk all techy with my IT colleagues, then when I'm ready to feedback to senior management on a project plan or update, my posh talk comes out.

 

As Compo does in Last of the Summer Wine.

 

Always remember my grandmother who came from up Spalding way .

I think she had her own vocabulary half the time.

My Dad picked up all kinds of half foreign terms during the war, some Arabic, some Italian and some Indian that he got from his Dad.
He used them all the time, luckily as kids we got used to them.
It wasn't until later life I actually started to think about them.

 

My Dad was the same. Some of them not very polite either.

 

The adjoining semi has recently been sold and the new owners are letting it out. The rent they want is £1150 pcm, unfurnished, no pets, no smokers, no sharers. Which is bad enough for a small semi (described as 3 bed, actually two and a box room), but they want the tenants to have an annual income of 36 times the monthly rent (£41400).
I earn over the local average, which is c£29k, I couldn't rent it and neither could most of the people I work with, even with a partner.