What’s Happening to da English Language?

This post could easily turn into a rant if I let it, but I’m not going to let it. I’d rather laugh about it than spend energy ranting.

It started off by a status update a younger family member had on Facebook that lead me to ask the question (While pulling my hair out by the roots.)

What the heck happened to the English language?

So I get the whole texting thing. I understand that words are abbreviated. “U” for “You”, “R” for “are.” That makes sense to me. No big deal. Not to mention it’s pretty acceptable on twitter. It has to be with only 140 characters at our disposal.

But now I’m seeing the kids writing things like, “back from the movies…fun time wit the fellas,” in their facebook status. When someone asked which movie. The reply came “hobo wit a shotgun.”

When I sarcastically questioned this young person’s use of the word “wit” someone else chimed in:

“Live in the city and all you hear is Wit ..da… fo… sho “

Well, maybe that’s the way “city” people speak these days. I live in the country so what do I know? But the writer in me still says, no…no…no.

“With” is spelled “with,” and will never ever be spelled “wit.”

*Eye twitch*

I started to wonder what my novel would look like if I wrote and spoke the way this particular young person does.

So here goes:

Dat has to be da law,thought Pru Burbidge da day a strange car stopped in front of da house. It was late January and bitterly cold, even wit a fire burning in da kitchen stove. Da bottoms of all da windows were decorated wit sheets of frost frozen so solid dat Pru had just a small patch of glass to see through. An icy wind had whipped across da crest of da snow all dat morning and shut da house completely off from da main road.

I’m fairly certain that my editor at Nimbus would never have accepted Bitter, Sweet had it been written in that manner, but she lives in the city so maybe I stand to be corrected. After all, that’s all you hear in the city. Right?

Sarcasm aside, is this the way the English language is heading? Are we evolving into a society that no longer values the proper use of the English language? I’m not even speaking aboutthe parts of speech here because that’s a whole other blog post in itself.

I don’t hang out with a lot of young people so I can’t say for sure if this is the way most young people speak and write today. I have only the word of these two people on facebook.

So I’ll ask da rest of you. Do you see or hear young people commonly using “wit” for “with” “da” for “the” and “fo” for “for” ? If you do, does it make your eye twitch da way it does mine?

But most importantly if da use of these words (did I say words?) suddenly became acceptable could you ever see yourself fully embracing their use?

Posted by Laura Best on April 27, 2011

https://lauraabest.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/whats-happening-to-da-english-language/