What happened to the English language?

If you are a fan of elegant English ( and great movies), watch "The Madness of King George." In one scene, the now-recovered king asks a beautiful woman-not-his-wife at court, whether she and he, when he was ill, had "ever, you know...."

When she pretended not to know what he meant, he clarified with "Did we ever ... utterly forget ourselves?"

These days, every other word is "like," and every heated exchange includes F-bombs left and right. http://www.vulture.com/2018/02/rose-mcgowan-got-into-a-shouting-match-with-a-trans-woman.html

Modern pop music is bad in almost every respect, except that it's rhythmic.I don't even go to the movies anymore because the language has gotten so bad.

What happened? I don't think we can ever go backwards, so how will we be speaking to each other in 50 years?

 

King: By your dress, sir, and general demeanour, I'd say you were a minister of God.

Doctor: That's true. I was once in the service of the church. Now I practice medicine.

King: You've quitted a profession I've always loved and embraced one I most heartily detest.

Doctor: Our saviour went about healing the sick.

King: But he had not 700 pounds a year for it. Ha ha ha! Well, that's not bad for a madman.


Maybe the 18th century Englishman on the street didn't speak this way, but I still love it.

 

So you want to know why real life isn't like the movies? Or I guess you mean that the quality of language has declined, even in movies?

People identify with characters who reflect their own behavior.

 

If you love 'English as she is spoke' then you need to read P G Wodehouse. Begin with Thank you, Jeeves, and you'll never stop thanking me.

 

Yes, I have read Jeeves, it is great, and thanks anyway!

 

People don't take pride in their language today. It's an ugly, utilitarian thing for most. You have to be a language nerd to care and do better now.

 

heard of a guy named Shakespeare?

 

Good question. It might be via icons. Or maybe pictures.

I read an article many years ago about Bollywood movie magazines in India. The ones that literate people buy are similar to People, Us, etc.
Magazines for illiterates (and they are numerous in that country) consist solely of photographs. Speaking of People*, I've noticed over the years that there is less text and more pictures. I think I know where we're heading in the good, old USA.

* I only read it in the checkout line and waiting rooms.

 

I think that was always true to an extent. People reading comic books, buying Playboy magazine ... "but just for the pictures."

(I wrote that Playboy joke accidentally, but it's pretty good!)

 

Trump and his gang got to it: hugely, yugely, bigly. I mean that. Really mean that. That.

What happened to the English language?

 

I hope you read Love Among The Chickens. If you didn't you can get it here as a freebie . . .

https://www.gutenberg.org/

It's hilarious; I think he's even better than Dickens.

 

What happened? "progressivism" is what happened. They "dumbed down" public education.

 

If I had to guess, I would say it has something to do with (1) pyublic school and (2) equality. Public schools are awful at teaching kids how to read and write and ever since they became mandatory, reading/writing skills have declined (quite dramatically in recent years) which will of course mean a more narrow vocabulary and thus a more degenerated everyday speech.

This is, of course, connected to the sacred cow of "equality" that has caused a "debourgeoisisation" of the language where certain words and expressions were seen as "oppressive" and as "outdated norms" that had to be smashed ("it's 2018!").

Then, some of it is natural - language is in constant change and development, for better and worse.

 

That is an awesome exchange

 

Yeah, why not blame the Russians while you're at it?

Fanboys of your sort make me sick and was one of the primary reasons I once decided to leave this place. Do you have to turn every damn topic into party politics? This is about linguistics, ffs!

 

Travelling around facebook recently (I detest the place, but was researching something), and the standard of literacy was .. literally .. shocking. Profile names indicated that all perps were native English speakers, but my god .. I could barely decipher what many were saying. Zero punctuation, murderous syntax, terrible grammar, horrifying spelling, and even using entirely wrong words - using 'then' instead of 'than', and vice versa. really really primitive errors. what you'd expect from someone not educated beyond age 10.

 

Rittz ... where you been?

 

Not the illiteracy, though. That's an aberration. A failure.

 

This is a big problem in most countries, I would say.

I suppose part of it has to be blamed on technology; Millennials grew up with cellphones and Internet chats where language was "dumbed down" for faster and easier communication. After years of using silly abbreviations and emoticons, real language was forgotten. Add to this the absolutely appalling form of entertainment my generation consumes and the disgusting celebrities they idolise and you will understand why things are as they are.

People barely even read books anymore!

 

I decided to take a break from this place because of all the Trump hysteria. I thought I would never return, but I stumbled upon an old thread, read every single post in it and realised I miss all the fun I had here.

Can't live without crank in my life.

 

Cites, links, data, analysis. Otherwise, hogwash.

 

Can't you find some other thread to pollute?

 

I don't think it is the innernet, though, or even youngsters. I find it more of an issue in those over the age of about 40. I'm wondering if it's just FB? The middle aged people I actually mix with are articulate and educated, but the ones I encounter on FB seem like Village Idiots.

 

Well I'm very glad you did. We missed you !!

 

You are entitled to your opinions but not your own facts.

Get to it, please: support your premise with something worthwhile.