From: cummings@milton.u.washington.edu (Michael Cummings)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: English English versus *American* English
Date: 28 Jul 92 22:00:31 GMT
Organization: University of Washington


	Where does one start refuting trash like this?  At the beginning, I
suppose... :-)

mmmirash@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu (Mandar Mukund Mirashi) writes:

>I am just starting a new (perhaps been beaten to death already??) thread....
>....I am just a newcomer to the US and what struck me immediately was the
>difference in the written and spoken language. In India, we follow the
>English English, since IMHO it is the original and  pure form of the
>language.

	Hardly.  You wouldn't recogniZe "original" English.  And what makes
it "pure"?

>     What irked me most, was how Americans seemed to treat the language
>as if they owned it! 

	Who "owns" a language?  Its speakers, perhaps?

>Personally I have no grudge against Americans, but
>dammit, you guys just can't change the language like that! 

	You mean we were wrong when we made all the changes at the American
Revision of English Conference?

>To me, it 
>amounts to sacrilege! They have dropped letters from words for "convenience"
>Blasphemy! I can understand words going out of usage, or neologisms coined,
>etc. but changing the very spelling of words is an impardonable sin! 

	I suppose you think words have always been spelled as they are now.
"Spelling" used to be "spellynge," or some such thing.  Was it a sin to
change that?

>What
>is even more annoying is how they can be so smug about it. One of my friends
>submitted his report to his professor in British English.....the professor
>had the impudence to point out his "spelling mistakes". Preposterous! The
>fact that America is the world's most powerful nation, does not justify
>Americans controlling the English language. 

	Who's controlling the English?  Have we sent in troops to force
other English-speaking countries to conform to the American dialect?

>Their only claim to the language
>is that they have learnt it right from their childhood.

	I.e., we are native speakers.  It is, in that sense, as much _our_
language as anyone else's.  Language change occurs naturally among its
speakers, and intent has little to do with it.

>But that in no way gives me the authority to change the way words are
>spelt! 

	What "authority" is needed?  What authority exists?  Anywhere?

>    The major offenders: (written English)

	[pap deleted]

>3. e instead of oe and ae (as in original Latin) - fetus instead of foetus,
>                         hemoglobin instead of haemoglobin!

	Obviously, we have gone astray farther back than you think.  We
should never have given up on Latin!

>      There are many differences in pronounciation too, but aren't they 
>present all over the world? However I have met Americans who claim the
>British accent to be "unfriendly". Obviously, when you encounter an
>unfamiliar accent you are bound to find it unfriendly! I guess I am
>most tolerant of all accents, having been exposed to the Amreican,
>British and Australian accents (primarily)....but in no way can I call
>them "unfriendly"....and it is unfair to do so.

	Nice story, but I've never run into an American who has told me
such a thing.  Don't generaliZe.

>      But I digress......all Americans reading this post...OPEN YOUR
>EYES...follow the true English and atone for your sins.  The beauty
>of the English language lies in the fact that words ARE NOT ALWAYS
>spelt the way they are pronounced. If you go around trimming words
>to suit your needs, you simply deface this language. What is the
>next Americanism? knife to nife? enough to enuff? Bunch of idiots!

	I feel a bit regretful in dignifying this drivel with a response
since it's such obvious flamebait, but your complete misunderstanding of
the way language works is an example of one of my biggest peeves.  You
remind me of a woman in a course I recently took on the history of English.
Every time we would discuss a change that took place in the language, she
would ask, "Why did they decide to do that?"  NOBODY DECIDED!  It JUST
HAPPENS!  You seem to think that we Americans got together and decided to
change the Language becaus we're stupid and bent on vandalizing "pure"
English.  It's really a bit more complex than that.  Trust me on this one.

>      Just a passing thought.....written English is sometimes so remarkably
>different from its  spoken counterpart that "fish" can be spelt as
>"ghoti" (f = gh, as in enough; o = i, as in women; sh = ti, as in partial).
>This is what makes English so unique! So lay off Americans!

	Very clever.  I imagine most of us have heard this one a hundred
thousand times or so.  I read the GHOTI thing in a comic book when I was
about 7 (my, wasn't that petty of me :-).

>If you want to speak English, speak it like an Englishman.

	Feh!

-- 
Mike Cummings

"Namoore of this!... Thy drasty rymyng is nat worth a toord!"
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english