Text 1536, 57 rader
Skriven 2006-11-22 11:19:29 av Anatoliy Kovalenko (2:5020/1042.46)
Ärende: OK, while I'm out of the read-only mood...
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Hello All!

OK, while I'm out of the read-only mood, I'd like to discuss an issue and raise
the echo traffic at the same time. The issue is: what are the modern tendencies
of English mutation? I used this word - mutation - because I see more and more
often that English gets deeper into the lives of non-US/non-UK people and these
people also bring something new into the English language. What, do you think,
is the nearest future of English (20-50 years) and will it be the same English
we use now or the English we can't even imagine?

Just an example. I'm a software developer and I also support the software by
e-mail. Of course, I get e-mails from different countries, and the users write
English to explain their problems. Let's skip the situations when the user
doesn't speak English at all and [evidently] use automatic translators to
translate phrases like "me now to have problem, what to do?". OK, but what
about people who answer "yes" when they are asked if they speak English? I know
a guy from Spain, we've been talking via e-mail for about 2 years. He's a good
guy, and I understand what he writes, but since he has learnt the English
words, he has no desire to learn the Grammar. Just to clarify the idea, here is
an excerpt from his e-mail:
===
You have thought include manage of WinZIP? I believe that the clients would
increase. I think winRAR is best than zip, but many people uses WinZip.
===
At first view, everything is understood, but just to make it clear, I'd say it
so:
===
Have you thought about adding the WinZIP management/implementation?  I believe
that the number of your clients will increase. I think WinRAR is better than
ZIP, but many people still use WinZIP.
===
Well, my English is not perfect, but at least I try to stick to the grammar.
But many people say, what's the use of thinking about the grammar if everything
is understood anyway!

This was just a simple example, but of course there are people who write such
things that I have to address my friends to "gather" the ideas of what the
written words really mean...

Do you think the English is really bound to be horribly simplified in the
following decades? I ask this question because I also receive many e-mails from
the US where the users don't really care about the English grammar too and
sometimes I feel I am being infected by this disease and also want to skip some
time-consuming thoughts like "Did I write this word correctly? Should I consult
the dictionary or should I leave it as it is in the hope that nobody cares
about it anyway?".

I've sent this post to burn up a new discussion in the echo, to keep it alive,
so your thoughts are welcome ;-)





Bye, Anatoliy.
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