I divided by age, and took the first 10 from each group.

[conuly]

Just finished tabulating the results, let me tell you I am *very* surprised by some of the answers. It's like hearing that your friends don't agree that *insert least favorite politician* is a creep! Well, it's done now. I just have to start presenting my case against linguistic prejudice more clearly, that's all. I'll forget this ever happened in a few days - block it from my memory.

*grins*

Okay, it's not *that* bad. But... Well, of course, I'm very anti-prescriptivist when I remember to be.

Comments

Re: Since you bloody yanks don't speek English anyway

[ser-kai.livejournal.com]

*speak. ;-)

I agree for the most part but you are aware of what a mongrel the Queens english is, right?

It's a homogenous, ever-changing, fascinating, illogical language.

I adore it because it does lend itself to change and so many pidgins & dialects.

I'd compare it to good food, personally.

All recipes change over time.

Re: Since you bloody yanks don't speek English anyway

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. *huge cheesy grins*

Given the state of MY english, I'd have figured that the irony was shining through clearly on that one.

Pesronaly I speak 4 dialects of the language, Amerienglish, 'Strine (australian, coloquial, general), Queens and outer eastie which is a geographical varient common to the area I grew up in. One of the reasons I enjoy net friends from round the world is observing the drift of words from one culture to another.
But in the course of this netting I HAVE noticed a remarkable tendency amongst americans, espically teens, to want to rebut my arguements by correcting my spelling by changing the abovementioned letters.

If the survey had been more general my answers would have lead to a point of "given the probabilities of missunderstanding in circumstances when the same root english word has diametricaly opposed meenings, particulary in the usage of slang and insult, it is important to not only be sensitive to the importance of the language but hte context in which it is used."

For example "bloody Yanks" is actualy a backhanded compliment in 'Strine. The insult in this case is actually "septic tank" (it's full of crap and rhymes with yank). This for reasons of obscurity frequently gets abrivieated to Seppo. If an Australian calls an north american a seppo, they are insulting the pants off you FYI.
I'd also advocate aginst calling any eastie a "prick" as that particualr word when used as an insult is the very worst insult you can use in that dialect.

English is a bloody nightmare of a language. That is why I like it!

Re: Since you bloody yanks don't speek English anyway

[ser-kai.livejournal.com]

For example "bloody Yanks" is actualy a backhanded compliment in 'Strine. The insult in this case is actually "septic tank" (it's full of crap and rhymes with yank). This for reasons of obscurity frequently gets abrivieated to Seppo. If an Australian calls an north american a seppo, they are insulting the pants off you FYI.
I'd also advocate aginst calling any eastie a "prick" as that particualr word when used as an insult is the very worst insult you can use in that dialect.


Yeah, I know.