Irregardless

It's a slow progression, or should I say, regression in terms of where our language has gone.

Back in the late 70s, I had a high-school English teacher who used the term "ex-cetera" a lot.  Then again, they were too busy studying literature that nobody cared about (at the time) to bother with silly concepts such as grammar and pronounciation.

In college in the 80s, I got to meet Ken Haslam, language guru at the CBC (the same gentleman currently seen on Chartwell ads) who insisted that broadcasters, public and private, should set the example and consider themselves to be standard bearers when it comes to the language.

Which reminds me.  Does anyone know where I can lay my hands on a recent copy of the CBC pronunciation database?  My copy that I received third-hand (a 381 page pdf) is from September 2012.    

I saw the movie "Idiocracy" for the first time a few months ago.  I didn't realize it was made almost 10 years ago and not more recently.  Society in general is really dumbing down.  The biggest technical advance these days is a watch designed to display from a phone that's already on your person.  So now you don't have to take your phone out of yor pocket.

And yesterday, I was reading about a new meal replacement being made available in Canada for people who don't want to waste time eating.

It's called, and I'm not making this up,  "Soylent".

http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/the-soylent-revolution-has-made-it-to-canada-1.3116513


 

Unlawful is okay as a word. Unlegal is illegal english.
 

The singing 'up at the end of every sentence' thing drives me nuts also.  Everything is a question.  Unfortunately this is a schools thing. 

the original hank wrote:

a couple of weeks ago, i was getting fed up with a customer service rep (a young whipper snapper) who was on the phone with me. i finally asked her if she could stop placing a question mark after each statement being read from
her script (i know, this from a guy who doesn't use capital letters ),

'm aware I'm showing my age when I write this, but to me it's an indicator of an under-educated person.  Someone who made it through high school on phonics and enthusiasm rather than education.

I have 2 friends who graduated high school (I didn't) who can't compose sentences to compete with my 8 year old son.   I thank God on a regular basis I had the British school system foundation when I arrived here in 1976, because from that point on my education went next to nowhere.  It's awful.  Yet my friends survive, well, in the workplace because for some reason it doesn't seem to matter.  I know I've passed up recommending people for management positions based on their written abilities.  Because when they have to speak 'up' they'll look incompetent.

It seems to be the same way with the spoken word these days.  As was noticed, the 2 biggies being dropping the 'g' and the sing song approach.
 

Last edited by ig (June 19, 2015 1:46 pm)

is why I check gta.boardhost.com 3, 4, 5 times a day
 

Old Codger wrote:

We notice to a degree how regional accents aren't as pronounced as they used to be

Who are "we" who do not enjoy historical, regional accents when listening to local programming in (say) Kitchener/Waterloo, Muskoka region and the Bay of Quinte?

And those are southern Ontario examples (more in rural Newfoundland, Nova Scotia & Saskatchewan)

Speaking of Radio Free Dundalk, am surprised that no one commented on Craig Smith's retirement from 560 CFOS a couple weeks back.     A long career there