Why So Many Words?

Peter Rozovsky is always an "agent provacateur" for the amateur linguist. If you rush over to his blog, there's a great discussion on "good" and "bad" language usage. As ever, this set me thinking...

Authority is being scrutinised in every area of life at the moment. I have always been puzzled by the numerous professions that manage to gain enough power to force the majority of people to conform to the linguistic rules that they insist are "right" and "correct". I know many of the rules, but am often amazed at the number of people who become incensed by "bad grammar" or "misuse" of words. They often write to our national newspapers to the hilarity of the rest of us who apply a sort of "speak and let speak" policy (a variation on "live and let live")

Liz Lockhead has some wonderful poems on the subject of being hauled off to school to be indoctrinated on how to "speak proper".

The snobbery visitors to Ireland have on the subject on how Hiberno-English is seen as a lesser dialect also offers hours of entertainment. I have met many people from mainland Europe who are not convinced by my claim to be "Irish" simply because I do not speak like Darby O'Gill.

Ultimately, language is used to allow people to form into groups where they feel comfortable and which excludes those who do not know the shared code. There is a very bizarre programme running on TV here at the moment called "Made in Chelsea". It is really interesting for linguists.

All that said, there was a documentary years ago where an Irish person spoke at length and the producers put in sub-titles. Very helpful, as I had not a clue what they were saying as I had not visited the exact place from whence they came.

Only Punning

I think that one of the main reasons I gave up work years ago was the desire shown by editors to control every syllable and image that came across their desks. Control freaks are a nuisance at the best of times, but when it comes to other people's thoughts, newspaper editors take the prize.

Political correctness was about to kick off at the end of the 1980's and it has now reaped a predictable whirlwind of nastiness and, in many cases, physical violence.

We are now so used to sissies on the Internet and in real life trying to control language that when I uploaded a "Kerryman" joke yesterday, a friend wondered if I might not be looking for trouble. The fact that the joke was about gardening or construction implements and could go down just as well in "Arkensas" (get the pun? SAW)only seemed to make matters worse.

I had to drop one of my doctors around the same time because everything was either twisted into some crazed medical dictionary and came out covered in spots. And writers can be the weirdest, as "the enemy within" lurks in most of them and sees danger where none actually exists.

Several have told me that the word "blog" is personally offensive to them. Perhaps that is why so many writers who write blogs to advertise their wares are so niggardly with comments. And, no... this is not the "N" word in disguise. It is a perfectly good, upstanding adverb that best suits the ninnies who would see threats in the most innocent of statements.

I hope all the editors who used edit my godmother's wise saws from my copy are ashamed of themselves. Though since they didn't know what they were doing, it probably doesn't matter.

And my godmother was not a carpenter... oh, just do a search for "SAW"...