24/03/2007
Hybrid English
STANDARD ENGLISH vs HYBRID ENGLISH
In The TIMES, Saturday March 24th, I read an article by Ben Macintyre about a new approach to teaching the English language (in England) proposed by 'Think-Tank Demos' last week.
"Given the spread of hybrid forms of English, instead of insisting that new arrivals to this country (England) learn standard English, they should be taught such variations as Spanglish, Hinglish and Chinglish".
Mr Macintyre goes on to say..."English is spreading faster, and in a richer variety of ways, than any language in history. French schoolchildren refer, not just to 'le weekend' and 'le MacDo', but use words of much more recent vintage: 'le reality TV', 'le hoodie' and 'le handsfree'".
"Applauding the adaptation of English in other countries should not mean abandoning a sense of where it comes from, or insisting that all forms are equal in this country. One cannot postpone the adoption of foreign forms of English - but there is no need to prepone it either".
"prepone": In India, we can 'prepone' an event, that is bring it forward as well as postpone the event!
Here are some other imported words into English:
"chuddies": Hinglish for underpants
"headbath": Hinglish for washing one's hair
"eve-teasing": Hinglish for sexual harrassment
"If Chinglish must be taught in English schools, then teachers should also instruct pupils on playground patois, internet argot, Glasgow patter or any of the countless subsidiaries into which English has evolved. These are all interesting and valuable children of the mother tongue, but children nonetheless".
Well - what do you think?
I agree with Mr. Macintyre - "to leap from an appreciation of English in all its hybrid forms to the notion that these should be accorded equal status with standard English in England seems faintly perverse".
It is inevitable that the English language will grow and change at a faster rate than ever before. The internet will certainly make sure that any 'new' words coined will zoom from internaut to internaut and will become absorbed and used in the click of a key! Goodness knows what will happen to our language in the next generation with the wide use of SMS by mobile phone users. Spelling will definitely be a thing of the past!
Mr. Macintyre states that .. "In the 1960s there were some 250 million English speakers, mostly in the US, Britain and former colonies; today there are approximately the same number of Chinese with at least some grasp of English".
Certainly food for thought - especially for all those keen young people getting certificates for teaching English as a foreign language. Their days may be numbered as more and more non-English speaking countries develop their own forms of English and understand their own derived English words better than the 'true' English words!
Let others develop their own hybrid English dialects certainly, but let us keep the original intact!
23:00 Posted in Language | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
16/03/2007
Language translators
Online Translators - Machine Translation
Many of us have tried these - I know I have! When you are desperate to have something translated you can fall back on one of the many available. I myself use SYSTRAN on occasion. Whether it's a document that has arrived in your email or something on a web page, or even a letter in the post (although this means that you have to type the text in first!) you can submit it to one of these and hey presto! there is a translation....
Well, sometimes, you get some very bizare translations. It really does help if you have some basic language skills. That way you can correct the errors yourself. Hmmm, well, here is a recent article on the subject with some sample sentences passed through 4 different, online, French translation programs....see what you think, how did your language translator do?
15:40 Posted in Language | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this