Originally posted by jean
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Pronunciation watch
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Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View PostAlmost certainly apocryphal, and pulled out of the cupboard whenever it would be easier to give in.
I am heartened by the number of young people I meet who really care about the English language.
Similarly, I was impressed by a chance meeting with a French teacher of French in SE France. She was passionate about her language and worried about the effect English was having on French. She had some very convincing arguments.
I mean, who ever would stick their little finger up when drinking a cup of tea these days?It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View PostIt isn't really the same. Language is a form of communication. Etiquette is less rational and is confused with manners. I would say that the use of language is more like manners than etiquette.
I wonder whether the 'rules' referred to passim above are, like etiquette, social. I have a hunch that they may often derive from some venerated written authority - a textbook, perhaps, or a 'How to...' type - and these 'rules' were regarded, in a century of great social mobility, as indicators of education, and therefore of social refinement.
I've no evidence for this except the example of my father, from a humble rural background, who became a teacher, and was very rigid in his adherence to rules and to inflicting them on pupils and colleagues.
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[QUOTE=french frank;250796Punctuation is partly personal: a friend commented on my use of colons and semicolons recently. I tend to litter my writing with them because I know what they are intended to convey and I enjoy their subtleties: they probably escape most people . [/QUOTE]
Dare I say, not me, ff? My late father instructed me at an early age in their correct use.
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Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View PostIt isn't really the same. Language is a form of communication. Etiquette is less rational and is confused with manners. I would say that the use of language is more like manners than etiquette.
In answer to kb, I'll offer a theory:
I think many of these rules go back no further than the Victorians, deciding arbitrarily on the basis of Victorian 'good writing' what was right and what was wrong.
Mangers - of course not youIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by french frank View PostI don't think that's quite how I would look at it Where I d' come from, it were:
I be, you be, he be, she be, we be, you be, they be.
and similarly I d' sit, you d' sit, he d'sit &c. (past tense: I did sit, you did sit &c)
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