Re: Yahoo has no nucular staff tech writers
As Dick pointed out, the shift in pronounciation that's
involved is very common.
Yes. There's a technical term for that. It's called dumbing-down.
If that's so, then each generation of English speakers is dumber than the previous one. Our present day standards might very well seem crude and inaccurate to speakers of Standard English from 150 years ago.
You could, with equal justice, call the process smoothing out the language. For many people, Bush's regional pronounciation of "nuclear" is easier to pronounce - especially when talking quickly.
(And please note that you are unlikely to hear me writing in support of our southern neighbor's president ever again - on any issue)
You are aware, of course, that King Canute was not trying to hold back the tide? He was essentially being sarcastic on a grand scale with his fawning courtiers, whom he saw as hopelessly sycophanitc and blinkered.
Yes, I've read Bede in English translation.But whether you take the popular reference to Canute (or, more properly, Cnut), or the literary one, the point remains the same: you can't stop linguistic change.
So, how many manuals have you written in Ebonics, lately?
And, why not?
Because nobody has paid me to, and I don't know the dialect. It would be interesting to try one day.
I've never denied that I'm primarily a speaker of Standard English, or that having a standard isn't useful. I just try to keep things in perspective.
--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield
"Down, set down your liquor and your girl from off your knee;
For the wind has come to say, 'You must take me while you may,
If you'd go to Mother Carey (Walk her round to Mother Carey!)
We're bound to Mother Carey where she feeds her chicks at sea!'"
- Rudyard Kipling, "Anchor Song"
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References:
Re: Yahoo has no staff tech writers: From: Dick Margulis
Re: Yahoo has no staff tech writers: From: Bonnie Granat
Re: Yahoo has no staff tech writers: From: Bruce Byfield
Re: Yahoo has no nucular staff tech writers: From: Kevin McLauchlan
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