ByMyReckoning

My previous post got me thinking for a moment about language and the way it developes. I've come across a few whinging voices on slashdot, who complain about the degradation of the English language, particularly at the hands of Americans, whenever a word such as "truthiness" is coined. This just smacks of fear, insecurity and sometimes jingoism. In fact they are mainly fellow Brits.

Well I'm not an American, in fact I hale from the UK, but I feel duty bound to disagree with this stance, simply because it picks on the US, when any number of English speaking cultures including the English themselves are guilty of exactly the same thing. As has been stated many times during this slashdot thread, language is dynamic and the mixing of cultural influences in the US will inevitably produce new and sometimes downright weird linguistic innovation.

The bottom line is that English as spoken in the UK is also the bastard child of a myriad of cultures, gathering influences from Old Norse, Old Frisian, Old Saxon, but more recently incorporating phrases and concepts from the old colonies and recent immigrants. I imagine that this later category closely mirrors the kind of influences that operate in the US today. In fact the US is now the dominant source of "English" speaking culture and is increasingly becoming the arbiter of linguistic taste. I'm constantly reminded of this by the "MTV English" spoken by young people on the European mainland.

Sometimes I hear phrases coined in the US that grate somewhat. However, I'm aware that there are two sides to every coin.

Afterall, language is the original opensource project is it not?

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Steven Colbert, Colbert, truthiness, English, opensource english, opensource language