Ironically, though we have adapted English as our basic language of communication, we are still miles away in written English. A call center employee speaks English in British and American accent fluently, but still writes "NICE" when he means "NIECE". A dear friend of mine who can beat British with his spoken english still writes "FREINDS" instead of "FRIENDS". Right from the roadside dhaba which has amusing spellings like "BATTAR" for "BUTTER" and "CHIKHAN" for "CHICKEN" and "PALLAV" for "PULAO" and "WISKY" for "WHISKEY" and "VADKA" for "VODKA" and "CHAPTI" for "CHAPPATI". To the state of the art offices parking areas where "NO PERKIN" and "NO SOMKE" is left to the readers imagination to interpret.
Worst part is these days mobile and laptops have this amazing dictionary feature, thanks to which none of us really care about our spellings. The common mistakes like "RESTURANT","CRAP","ENGGINER" and "AKWARD" go unnoticed even by the most learned lot. And words like "CHECK" for "CHEQUE" are now acceptable even as official language.
Like calculator has wiped out quick mathematics or rather simple mathematics also from our generation altogether.Similarly, sooner or later, "u","t","Txt","mrng","chtng","osum","f9"and many such chat lingo will be our official lingo. Our kids would need to do RESEARCH/PHD on spellings to know the actual spellings of simple words like "PRIVILEGE","ACCOMMODATE" forget "PNEUMONIA" and "YACHT" and "SOVEREIGN".
Like calculator has wiped out quick mathematics or rather simple mathematics also from our generation altogether.Similarly, sooner or later, "u","t","Txt","mrng","chtng","osum","f9"and many such chat lingo will be our official lingo. Our kids would need to do RESEARCH/PHD on spellings to know the actual spellings of simple words like "PRIVILEGE","ACCOMMODATE" forget "PNEUMONIA" and "YACHT" and "SOVEREIGN".
Unfortunately, it's not just the spellings that we butcher...we butcher the grammar as well...some sentence formations are downright horrible and disgusting...Sometimes I think we try to kill and maim the language in an effort to get back at the Britishers for ruling us :(
ReplyDeletePankti, you are correct. We need to really work hard on the next generation as for them its very easy to get away without knowing the grammar and spellings. Most of the times, they dont even know what the correct usage!
DeleteHistory says many races butchered Latin and our very own Sanskrit .. time and again although for making things easier ... with the advent of time .... even Indian are making inglis e g ur (english easier)
ReplyDeleteits pay back time !! :D
Nice post !!
Sanskrit and Latin were butchered due to the complexity attached to it. But we have grown with English, its high time we really stop taking English as a slang and work on it!!
DeleteSadly, one is looked askance if one writes or speaks good English.Butchered grammar or spelling rules the day and the Butchers relish their job.
ReplyDeleteArumugam, I quite disagree with this. Good English speaking and writing will never go out of fashion :)
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