Slang: The Next Step

[DFW5Traveler]

Outside of the other threads use of sexual vernacular, what other perversions of our language are becoming a proverbial "fingernail on the chalkboard". Slang, street speek, word bling, et.al.

My personal pet peeve is the usage of 'a' as 'er' or 'ar'.
e.g., suga instead of sugar

It reminds me of people speaking to infants using babytalk, what does it really teach them and does it promote poor communication skills at an early age?

[Dharma]

"Axe" instead of ask. Sometimes, I wonder what the speaker is really trying to convey... and if I should duck and cover.

One that really gets on my nerves: Schlitz beer is pronounced using all of it's letters. In New Braunfels, alot of people call it "Slits".

[Tara Evans]

The word aint. Like I ain't going to do it. My mom always would reply back with where between the a and the t.

[Bushaholic]

When someone overuses "um" too much, as a pause mechanism, when trying to find the right words to express a coherent thought. Why can't they just pause with silence?

When someone overuses the word "like". Example...I'm like, um, gonna go to the store.

When someone uses the word "pooh-ter" for "computer"

When someone says "that's my brother", or "sister", or "cousin", when there's no real blood relation.

[Guest100610-3]

I completely agree, I feel as if i need a translator some times to understand anyone that is under 26 years old. I had a young man about 2 months ago give me the "you now what I'm sayin" routine and I replied "son You have worked for me for 5 months, and I have not understood one damn word you or any one in your generation has ever said.

Maybe in a few years there will nothing but slurred grunts and acronyms for every word in the English language.

I mean what do we expect, children, and adults had rather text in abbreviations to some one that lives across the street than walking over and having a normal conversation.

Maybe we are should look at the state of the teaching our children are getting as well. 3 or 4 years ago there was a study in California high schools. They picked 1000 members of various schools and gave them a grammar test. They were all given 500 words to speak correctly, 4 percent passed with 100%. 50% failed the test, 15 or so only new how to pronounce less that 5% of the words given to them.
The horrible thing about this hole story is the members of the high schools were " TEACHERS"

[Pearl Man]

The worst, all time ever, is the repetition of the phrase "you know". Drives me nuts. I find myself counting the you know's instead of listening to what the person is saying. It is not necessary and it sounds real stupid when used over and over again. If I knew you wouldn't need to be telling me. Right? An occasional. "Am I correct" or "do you know what I am saying" or something like that, but using "you know" 20 times in a sentence is just awful.

[Chainsaw Anthropologist]

Here's a common foible that occurs because English is a language that borrows heavily from others.

There are two words one from French, the other from Italian, both are spelled identically, FORTE

The French word refers to strength or fortitude and is properly pronounced FORT. It really is the basis of the English word Fort as in Fort Knox.

The Italian word refers to music passages, indicating that the noted section should be played loudly. It is pronounced FOR-TAY.

Merely a common error made by most who don't lionize the late William F. Buckley. (I wish had the command of the language he had!)

See my signature block below for another of my peeves. I'll probably be back later for a rant about pronouns!

[Guest062512]

typed: your instead of you're

spoken: every other word is "like"

[Tony Gambino]

Originally Posted by Pearl Man

The worst, all time ever, is the repetition of the phrase "you know". Drives me nuts. I find myself counting the you know's instead of listening to what the person is saying. It is not necessary and it sounds real stupid when used over and over again. If I knew you wouldn't need to be telling me. Right? An occasional. "Am I correct" or "do you know what I am saying" or something like that, but using "you know" 20 times in a sentence is just awful.

I agree "you know", "like", "um", are all a little iratating. Text mesaging will only continue to encourage abbreviated/misprounced words. I see this a lot with my younger employees. ya feel me?

[Cossetan]

Originally Posted by Tony Gambino

I agree "you know", "like", "um", are all a little iratating. Text mesaging will only continue to encourage abbreviated/misprounced words. I see this a lot with my younger employees. ya feel me?

As a writer, I was going to say that things like poor grammar, incorrect spelling and improper punctuation were right there at the top of my list as I find more and more people demonstrating difficulty with the fundamentals of the English language - particularly in its written form. With all due respect, Mr. Gambino, thank you for illustrating my concerns even though I had to put the earplugs in to dull the sound of the scraping fingernails.

(Irritating...messaging...misp ronounced...a capital Y on "Ya"...and commas and periods generally go inside the quotation marks.)

Speech and writing are two of the most powerful instruments or weapons a person can have at his or her disposal. It pays to keep them sharp and precisely honed, and to assure that those who handle these valuable implements are well-trained in their use.

It's no wonder many of our kids can't speak or write correctly if their parents, as a generation, are having so much trouble. As a culture, we are failing greatly in this area - in both the public schools and in private homes.

Mrs. Bell and Miss Kelly, my fifth- and eighth-grade grammar/English teachers, must be doing the rotisserie maneuver in their caskets.

(Seriously, Tony, no offense intended. I DID understand clearly what you wanted to communicate.)

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