Do you not think it's about time that this so called Super Power known as America developed its own language?

Question

Afterall, Native Americans had their own completely identifiable and independent languages, so wouldn't modern day America have a far better IDENTITY not to mention STATUS and cause less confusion globally, (never mind the unnecessary re-working of text into American-English), if it developed its own generic language rather than kept trying to pervert the English language.

American culture arrogantly seems h**l-bent on continually trying to do this via various attempts to change spellings and their general misuse and complete misunderstanding of some aspects of grammar in some sort of crusade to make it a completely PHONETIC language, which it clearly is not and etymologically has evolved over the centuries from many sources into the sophisticated and comprehesive international business language it is today, with all its various and slowly EVOLVED contradictions?!!!

Answer 1

If you don't like America, that's one thing there are plenty of reason to not like America but you can do better than this.

Language is not static, it's constantly changing (evolving). America as we know it was founded by the English, at that time the language was the same as it was in England. After 232 years though, neither Americans nor the English speak the same way they used to. They've both gone through a natural evolution that happens with all languages. American English has also been influenced by other languages being that we're an immigrant country which has a lot to do with why it sounds funny to you. But this is how language and culture works, we borrow things from others. The queens English borrows words and properties of other languages. Think of it in the same way you do biological evolution. It's very much the same thing.

It would be completely ridiculous for Americans to invent a whole new language, very few cultures have created their languages they've just evolved that way. Furthermore, it's one of the most well know languages in the world which would cause quite a language barrier, don't you think?

Answer 2

In a few more decades Spanish will be official language in the the U.S. and you can stop worrying about the bastardization of the English language.  It must be quiet a burden for you to be the world's English speaking police.

Answer 3

Your point is rather elaborate, we do have our own language...American English, and it differs from Queen's English.  In terms of phoenetic...well it doesn't really work.  Inventing new languages never works.  All languages are variations upon others, and sometimes the more elaborate the language the better the superpower.

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\\  Golgothor.

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Answer 4

Understood and well written.  Too many pseudo intellectuals try to put questions of this nature on here.

I believe English has taken over for one good reason; its adaptability.  Many words from varied cultures, such as the Yiddish word capeesh, are adopted and freely accepted into the American English language, that wouldn't be in a more restricted society.

Answer 5

Yawn...You seem to forget that the version of English you consider proper, also evolved over time.  Languages by their nature are dynamic and regionalized.  I am quite sure your country has greater concerns than this to address.  Get over it.

Answer 6

We already have our own language. It's called American english.

Answer 7

The English language has only become "perverted" in the last 20 years or so... When I was a kid (60 years ago) we had no problem with it. My English teacher knew what she was talking about and we had no problem doing what we were told. The problem today is, everybody wants to speak ebonics or some other kind of slang which is NOT english. If they want to say words that people don't understand, they will have to deal with other people not wanting to hear what they have to say.

Answer 8

sooo...create a new language to cause LESS confusion?? maybe i'm a genius cuz i don't have a problem understanding "American-English" from any other form of English.

Answer 9

Uh, no.

Trying to legislate or force language or language change is always a mistake, and is always doomed to failure.

Just as trying to prevent natural language change (which your phrase "trying to pervert the English language" implies).

We don't pervert English. We are among the many users of English in the world. Various areas of the US have developed somewhat different versions of English. Nothing wrong with that.

The English spoken today in England is a "perversion" (in your terms) of previous version of English. Would you try to force all modern Brits to use, say Chaucer's English?

WHY?

You seem to accept the notion that languages evolve, so why hammer on us for participating in that process?

Language "belongs to" every user of it; each generation messes with it, plays with it, extends it, drops bits of it. It's all good.

Railing against this universal human behavior is silly.

Answer 10

How do you think language develops?  It's not like we get a group of people to think something up, and then we all learn it.  We tried that once, and very few people speak Esperanto.  These "arrogant perversions" of the language _are_ how, eventually, American English and British English will be two completely different languages.

For instance, my hometown's dialect, Pittsburghese, developed over centuries.  We have influences from a variety of countries whose immigrants settled here- Scots-Irish and eastern European, mostly- and our accents (well, not mine, I've got a boring Midwestern American accent) were developed through a combination of these influences and just being somewhat geographically isolated for long enough.  A lot of this stuff probably looked like laziness and those d@mn foreigners not learning the local language (sound familiar?), but now it's a recognized English dialect, which has been studied by linguists.

African American Vernacular English, long despised by "purists" like yourself, is another recognized dialect, with roots in Southern American English.  It's kind of what you'd expect to happen when several groups are removed from their homes, mixed together, and forced to serve a completely different group on another continent, without benefit of language lessons, and then, after slavery's over, are marginalized and kept separate from the larger society.  I'm frankly a bit surprised that it's still so understandable to the rest of us English speakers, considering the isolation and oppression that group has gone through.

And it's not like your venerable English is such a pure language anyway.  It's basically a Romance (French) vocabulary superimposed upon a Germanic grammar, with bits of every other language we've stumbled across added for fun.  Check out these lists: http://www.krysstal.com/borrow.html  It was evolved by English peasants serving their Norman overlords.  For instance, the English peasants raised the cows, a word we get from the Germanic languages, and the Norman nobility ate the beef, or boeuf, as they're spelling it in France these days.  That's why English is such a rich, interesting language and also such a ***** for non-native speakers to learn.  For a native English speaker to complain about a lack of purity is like...  I don't know, an Indian chef complaining about all these d**n spices?

Answer 11

American English is a dynamic language that's always changing.

While we have regional dialects, the nation as a whole speaks the same language. That's due to the Webster's dictionary and McGuffey Reader that ended up in most homes and classrooms. Compared to the regional and class dialects of England, it's pretty amazing.

You're dealing with a pure democracy. People will speak what they choose to. Checking the boards, you can see how "text speak" is slipping into the written language, for good or bad :-p.

By all means work to "clean up" the language and place some order in it. The French have been trying it, banning imported words ("Le French fries"; "Le MacDonald's") that dystroy the 'purity" of French. Just don't expect a revolution in your favor.