Saturday 2 October 2021

What a day

Grey is an understatement as a description of today's weather.   It is wintry in the extreme, raining and grey.   Inside is the best place to be, without a doubt.Friends S and T called so that they could iron out the last few problems with my new mobile phone and hopefully I should now be able to send texts using upper and lower case letters,   Judging by some of the texts I receive, as a retired teacher I begin to despair about the eventual standard of spelling.  'cud' seems pretty standard for 'could' and 'u' for 'you' - where will it all end and does it matter?   Capital letters, colons and semi-colons - have they gone the way of all flesh?   Will there come a time when putting a semi colon in a piece of writing will be considered 'old fashioned'?   And following on to this train of thought comes the question -  should we fight this and form a campaign for the protection of the English language or should we let it go where it wishes to go and look upon it as Progress with a capital P?

24 comments:

Rachel Phillips said...

Olde English or Medieval spellings look a bit weird to us too. I use normal language for texts because that is all I know but I don't get upset at others using short forms or modern stuff.

CharlotteP said...

There is possibly some excuse for using shortened forms of words when texting, it's so much trickier than typing on a full sized keyboard; but with mobile phones now getting larger again, (they are almost laptop sized), that excuse will soon be a thing of the past!
It is indeed wintery today. I had to take radiators off to allow the plasterer to get behind them, so am reduced to the stove in the living room and the oven on low to dry my plaster out.
Now...back to the cleaning up (any excuse...)

Jules said...

It is gloomy, wet and cold here today. I think I will make some soup in readiness for my lunch tomorrow. X

Susan said...

I do not mind the icons and texting as long as the message content is clear. Sunny and dry here today with rain for the next 3 days. Another good day for soup and crusty bread.

Derek Faulkner said...

I have the same thoughts as Rachel.
Trying to halt the progress of modern youth and the way they do and spell things will be a lost cause, Pat.

Yellow Shoes said...

I use semi colons when I text, like all punctuation, to make my message clear.
But as far as the abbreviated use of english is concerned there are far more serious problems in the world that need campaigners' energies.

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

What grieves me is that I spent a good part of some of the best years of my life learning how to spell correctly, then when I got my work back it was all covered in red ink and I had to write out all the correct spellings till I got them into my head. Now, after a lifetime of struggle, it seems that it doesn't matter any more!

Debby said...

People use all sorts of abbreviations when texting. It doesn't bother me. If I received a letter like that, I'd be surprised. Shoot. If I received a letter at all, I'd be surprised.

thelma said...

Abbreviations get me trying to figure them out but language evolves, it always has. Do you remember 'Lost Words' by Macfarlane and Morris, when the Oxford Dictionary left out words from nature?

The Feminine Energy said...

Good grammar and punctuation is a must with me. Perhaps that's why I don't have a cell phone? All that would drive me mad! Enjoy your rainy weather... I wish you could send some here to Indiana as I'm getting tired of the constant sunshine! ~Andrea xoxoxo

Bonnie said...

I don't use abbreviations when texting but I understand why some people do. What will truly bother me is when people start using those simple abbreviations in regular writing!

Marty said...

As someone who corrects other people's grammar in my head I(at least I never do it to their face), sign me up for the campaign.

Rachel Phillips said...

Text speak and abbreviations do not necessarily mean bad grammar. Bad Grammar is entirely different in my opinion. The major threat of text messaging is the loss of spoken word as a means of communication because many young people, who are getting older and older and this is just not the very young I am talking about, prefer to text rather than to speak and this to me in more worrying.

Heather said...

I think good spelling and grammar are still important, and a way of preserving our language. I am amazed at some of the words now considered worthy of including in a dictionary, and others that are left out. I enjoyed English lessons at school and was good at spelling.

Anonymous said...

When my husband was teaching, he looked at a students work on the screen and he said to the Year 8 boy, "Just put a comma there". The boy looked blankly at my husband and the computer keyboard. "What's a comma?" queried the boy, His friend leant over to the keyboard and said " The curly thing next to the dot." - Pam.

Red said...

I like the ending of this post. The language started to change long before the electronic age. Schools stopped teaching grammar.

Marianne said...

I remember when microwaves ovens first showed up. Several people at the time vowed not to use them. I am sure that almost everyone uses them now. I would be lost without it. Change is just a way of life. My grown children do not write or make phone calls, text is their preferred method, so i have given up and given in. I get texts almost every day and i am grateful

Joanne Noragon said...

I can speak to my phone and make a text message. The problem is, I neglect to proofread before I send.

Cro Magnon said...

As far as I can see, 'grunting' is all that's required these days; unless you want to find a job of course!

jinxxxygirl said...

Have you seen the movie.. 'The Professor and the Madman?.. with Mel Gibson? Very good by the way...I can only imagine how upset the people who compiled the dictionary would be with todays language usage.

Debby said...

I thought of you yesterday. My sister needed a letter from her physician, so she called the office. She was assured that it would be no problem. She got the letter in the mail and opened it up to discover a short 6 line letter had five misspelled words. The doctor had even misspelled her own first name.

My sister was aghast (she's a nurse). "I can't take this letter to work. They'll never believe it came from a doctor." She called the doctor office and told them the same thing. She has not received a response yet.

Marcia LaRue said...

I spent most of my adult work-life dealing with the written word! It annoys me no end to see all the misspelled words, lack of punctuation, and lack of sentence structure! Proofreading ... evidently no one even knows what that is ... ☹️

The Weaver of Grass said...

Mixed messages here but I don't suppose our comments will help either way - the world will go the way it wishes to go. It saddens me but then maybe I am old-fashioned. Thanks for your comments.

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