"I like to be a free spirit. Some don't like that, but that's the way I am." - Princess Diana

Monday, March 18, 2013

America's Tongue, Why Has It Changed? My Thoughts On Old-Word English In This Modern World.

Author's Note: Most of the ancestors of Americans come from European countries, right? If you look at America's people timeline, you will see that a lot of Brits came over (Mayflower, Revolutionary War, ect.) and they also took their language with them. In modern time, we refer to it as "Old-World English" which is commonly known as proper English or British. Now, when did we break off from this language and develop our own and why? This is my thoughts on this change in speech. ( I did do research, but after further examination I realized it was not really a research piece, but perceive it as you will.:)


Taking a look at literature and the way things used to be. The way people used to speak, write, communicate all used to be so proper. Why isn't our society still like that? You can blame it on entertainment and rule breakers who want to be so individual, but why don’t we still use that same, poise, that same courtesy? I’d like to live in a world where people had a little bit more respect for each other, like back in the 1800s. Now I am not saying I want to live in the 1800s, (I probably would not survive!), but I would like people to speak with that same type of poise and respect.

Talking with respect and smart word choice could ultimately make us smarter, right? Really thinking about what we are speaking and what we write could make us use broader vocabulary and or also use proper English. They say, “Reading Shakespeare will make you smarter!” Well, then how come Shakespeare isn't helping me write or speak? Sure reading it would help widen my vocabulary and in a sense Shakespeare helps test my brain, but if I am not going to use it within my speaking, why read it? Same goes for any English literature that we read or study. I know it can help us understand what the literature and speech used to be like, but why did it have to change? If I can’t use it in my speech, why read it?

I know we can never get back to that type of proper English ever again. It is merely impossible! Unless you live in the England or The United Kingdom if you will, you will probably never hear Old-World English in our modern society ever again. Our Americans before us broke off from the proper British English to American English around the mid 18th-century. Our speech has changed and developed over the years into this type of English “slang”. We might not all talk in “slang”, but compared to Old-Word English, this is “slang”. This started around the Revolutionary War.  Again, this all comes with our centuries evolving and developing into this modern age America. It is said with the new-age Americans and even Brits there are still language changes and speech differences. I still would like to enjoy everything our modern age offers, but I wish we would still have that proper English that was used so long ago.

Also, you have to put into perspective all of the different accents that American’s have developed over the years. It all depends on where you live, really. If you grow up down south, you develop more of a southern accent. In the north half of the U.S, you have more of a normal American accent. It all depends on where you live and how the people talk there. Now I am not saying everyone in the north talks like the north and the south people talk in southern, but most percentage of them do. Now through the centuries we haven’t just spun-off of British- English, now we have spun-off of American-English! Just look at “Honey-Boo-Boo”! I truly hope when people think of America or even Southerners they do not think of this “Honey-Boo-Boo Child”. (In my opinion that world is completely repulsive, but that is a whole different topic.)  This is just a demonstration of how us Americans have just developed and spun off from our own language. If you live in the South and go to the North, people will talk a lot differently. Same as if you went from the West coast, to the East coast. We all still speak English, it is just a little different in their own ways.

I genuinely wish we all still spoke with the same respect and poise that was used but American’s and Brit’s so long ago, but that shall never be in existence in our modern day and age again. Even though we will never talk in that proper Old-World, English, tongue again, I believe that the American language will still grow in change within the modern literature that we demonstrate today.



http://dialectblog.com/2011/06/13/americans-talking-britis/

http://flavorwire.com/171612/fyi-reading-shakespeare-makes-you-smarter

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