Words that get on your nerves

I like them in a carrot cake but they're mashed rather than split.

 

I have a recipe for bananas in a spiced carrot cake @BB3 and have made one with banana coconut and pecans for the plant fair that was a huge success. A keeper.

 

I agree with your description of the English language … as far as it goes … sometimes the author’s aim is to be other than ‘beautiful, elegant and precise’. I believe that the greatest attribute of the English language is its facility for nuance … splitting an infinitive is just one of the many tools at the disposal of a creative writer rather than an academic.

 

English is a language made entirely by smashing other languages together. I read an amusing article just recently by a French linguistics expert who boldly claimed that modern English is just badly spelled old French.

When we consider all the many ingredients that went into the melting pot to make English, be that various Germanic languages, French, Latin, a bit of Greek, I think it's interesting that some people today try to nail it down tight to a set of rules written at a point in time.

Add to this the fact that English is the second most widely spoken 'first' language in the world, and therefore takes influence from all sorts of cultures in all sorts of places, I think the best thing about English can't be it's 'beautiful, elegant and precise', because it's not really any of those things. But rather than it's inclusive, flexible and adaptable.

 

Couldn’t agree more @Clueless 1 v2

 

Language can be beautiful, eloquent and precise as well as inclusive, flexible and adaptable, of course. Which of those is most important depends on what you are using it to communicate and to whom, which changes countless times a day as you write love letters or notes for the milkman (those two categories may not be mutually exclusive, of course ), give directions to someone for whom English is not their first language or converse with an elderly person in a queue, consult a doctor or compose a song. It all depends.

 

I don't remember ever writing a love letter for the milkman. I'm pretty sure he was well able to write his own.

 

I am aware that English has many roots. That's one of the reasons it is so flexible and all-encompassing. I'm also aware that American English has been affected by usages and constructs adopted from themany languages of the European emigrants.

Having a fairly deep experience of using French daily for over 30 years, including buying and selling houses, cars and ensuring medical treatments for me and my family, I am aware of the limitations as well as the circuitary nature of written and spoken Franch as well as the oddities that put Flemish verbs at the end of their sentences.

cased on those experiences I maintain that English has the vocabulay and structures to be the most elegant, descriptive and efficient language and the only limits are the education, imagination and, sometimes, accent of the speaker or writer.

 

For the first time in years, I watched a bit of Gardeners World. The swarthy chap, with what I assume might be an Essex accent, was interesting, informative and his accent ,to my ears, was not unpleasant. I wasn't quite sure what to expect after noting the contempt of some members of the gardening community who could not believe that anyone with such an accent could have anything to offer - even if they could bear to listen.

 

@BB3 That's Adam Frost who trained with Geoff Hamilton and occasionally popped up on screen, especially for big jobs like laying pond liners. He's picked up the torch for practical, do-able gardening as well as being a top class designer with Cheslea gold medals to his name. He communicates well so his accent doesn't bother me at all.

I have a good friend in Belgium of Glasgow origins, well-educated and fluent in Flemish, French and Italian but when she gets excited about something I find her English less fathomable than her Flemish.

 

I think Adam is great. His obvious enthusiasm for what he's doing certainly shows.

@Obelix-Vendée Glaswegians don't speak English I have Scottish roots and can decipher most Scottish accents with the exceptions of Glasgow and Aberdeen.

 

I like Adam's sections on GW too. I don't even notice an accent. No doubt some of the folks who don't like his accent wouldn't like mine either!!

 

I love Adams beautiful Cat.

 

Yorkshire is my first language , English is my second.