Spelling change (or not), and Americanisms

Right then - today we looked at spelling history, and some of the reasons why English spelling is far removed from what it used to sound like. (The sheets you have were written by a guy called Steve Campsall, who runs the rather spiffing www.englishbiz.co.uk site; I'd feel a bit cheeky linking them here and seemingly claiming them as my own, so if you've lost yours come and see me). Trust me - these will help.

Following that, we looked at this old text, and I'm about to point you in the direction of some more just like it.

I really can't believe I haven't pushed the British Library site more than this, but there you are; I'm doing it now. Over half term, set aside an hour to have a good root around. I'll be setting homework from this in the next couple of weeks, but for now, I command you to kill 40 minutes checking this out. Solid gold.

Anyway, from there we started to look at the future of spelling, and the use of American English. To be honest, I reckon it's a little tricky to separate American spellings from American lexis (in terms of a discussion about them becoming more widespread in British English), but I don't think it'll distract you from the point.  Anyhow, start by reading this article here - if you can't tell me what Jean Aitcheson would make of the article then there'll be trouble... (and if you're feeling bone idle, then you can check out the audio version here)

Secondly, have a look at Dan Clayton's take on it, which he covered on his blog, with some excellent points that I'm not going to paraphrase, but do look at the blog Separated by a Common Language that he mentions - some of it might appear a bit steep, but check out the tags on the left hand side and you'll quickly find something that is accessible.

Finally, make sure you check out the infographic about UK and US spelling differences - it's on a previous post because it was my first attempt at embedding code on my blog and....and... please don't judge me. I'm a sad case. I know.

Aitchison's Reith Lectures

Here you go - here is the iplayer recording of the lecture we listened to here, and just in case you need a hand when writing up your notes, then a transcript is available here.

And...... since you enjoyed the first part so much...... welcome to part 2! Wooooooooo! If you're stuck for something to do on Saturday night, I might humbly suggest the second part of 'The Adventure of English'. This episode is useful, particularly regarding the French and Latin influences on English. Watch it and take notes, please!

Any questions to the usual address etc etc

Teaching through the medium of Rastamouse? It's the future

Today we started looking at attitudes to language change, focusing on non standard English. Rastamouse is a blinding way to introduce any topic whatsoever, but especially so here. Given that we looked at predominately prescriptive attitudes to language change in the media today, it's not really a surprise that Rastamouse initiated a lot a debate, and this has been covered in great detail (more than I could ever hope to) by Dan Clayton on his blog, which you can find here.

We're going to return to Rastamouse later on in the course (hooray!), but for now, I'll share some of my own observations, and we can discuss them in class tomorrow.

As I see it, kids around here (generally, and it must be pointed out, misguidedly) associate Jamaican culture and accent with cannabis use (if you don't believe me, then check this out), and cannabis use with a shift away from mainstream society (if you don't believe me about this, then simply hang around the post office in the village for around ten minutes after school, but remember some Bonios to placate the rabid, unhinged staffies that will be there, too). Since kids are masters at distancing themselves from the adult mainstream, then it isn't really a surprise that Rastamouse is a big hit, not only with youngsters but with teenagers, too.

Now, one of the most efficient  ways of accepting things into the mainstream is to make a kids' TV show about it... so I'm guessing that in a few years time the Jamaican accent could well have lost any connotations of weed smokin' hipness, and youngsters will have to use other terms to show how different they are from the mainstream - (I'm guessing a new synonym for 'amazing' will be 'Nevin' - you heard it here first).

There are other factors at work here, by the way, such as the rise of London Multicultural English (LME) and suchlike, but that's my tuppence worth, and as I've pointed out above, you'll get a much clearer and general understanding form checking out the articles on the SFX blog.

Anyhow, we also looked at our own use of non standard forms, and looked at how Donald McKinnon categorised attitudes to language - which I can't link to as the firewall is doing a mighty fine job of preventing you from looking at anything useful. These be mighty fine tools for examining exactly why people don't like particular brands of English, so it's worthwhile getting to know these.

We'll carry on with this tomorrow, when we'll be looking at the fuss Prof. Jean Aitchison managed to cause with her Reith Lectures - those descriptivists really are a magnet for abuse...

Finally, I couldn't possibly not link to Rastamouse on iplayer - it'd be rude not to. Fill your boots.

Finally finally - if you're a prescriptivist, you need to bring your blue prescriptivist hat to the next lesson. Likewise for your yellow hat if you are a rocking out descriptivist. No arguments. No excuses. No moaning.