"The natural evolution of language" is utter crap

[qwertysaur]

Until now I did skim the thread, because walls of text don't mix with ADD, my apologies. Also interesting that Firefox likes the word monolingual but not unilingual.

Evolution: Gradual change over time. There is never any distinction that the change will always be positive. When it's clearly a change backwards it's usually called devolution, so you can consider the addition of irregardless as such. But it's always much easier to make that call retroactively.

Also you read this article as well I take? Or is this just a random coincidence.

[spirit]

This thread is very involved for a GC thread. I thought it might be such a cool, deep subject but I wasn't sure. I just kept avoiding it. Nothing to really add this many pages into it, especially because I haven't read most the thread.

[NorthernChaosGod]

By that same logic is would be reductio ad absurdum to resist the evolution of a language. Like it or not, you use British English, I use Standard American English.

The very thesis of the entire rant is that bad grammar is not evolution any more than growing giant poisonous spikes on your junk is evolution.

Also, did anybody read anything but the joke about British English? Any of it at all? Because you all seem to think that's not only the main point of what I'm saying, but all that I'm saying. There's some pretty funny stuff in there. I made fun of trailer trash and everything.

The thread is more fun this way.

[Citizen Bleys]

Also you read this article as well I take? Or is this just a random coincidence.

What? No! Eww.

This was inspired by a couple of David Mitchell rants, which is why I come across sounding like David Mitchell (albeit with a Canadian accent)

[Madonna]

(albeit with a Canadian accent)

I must have missed all the eh's and references to Tim Hortons.

[theundeadhero]

I did get a visual of Bleys wearing a nice red coat while riding a horse at the time though.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I did get a visual of Bleys wearing a nice red coat while riding a horse at the time though.

You know, I can see it too.

[Citizen Bleys]

I did get a visual of Bleys wearing a nice red coat while riding a horse at the time though.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

[Yar]

If English stopped evolving/adapting/growing/whatever, it would be a dead.

Standards are put into place for a reason. Thanks to these standards, languages don't have the ability to "evolve" as much as they had before.

So yeah, all I got out of the original post was a rant against idiots and their poor usage of English. I agree with that stance, but I really don't know what else you are trying to say.

The only thing there is that I have a dispute with is your Yeargdribble-esque title for this thread: "'The natural evolution of language' utter crap". It's not. Languages do grow and evolve. It's just better observed in languages that haven't been as standardized as ours.

[Citizen Bleys]

Yeargdribble-esque

You do realize that I regard that as a compliment, right?