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Mistakes that irk you in your vernacular | ||
Tags: Colloquial Language | Error | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5702 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 49 of 73 20 June 2014 at 6:33am | IP Logged | ||
As far as I know, aks/ax is the phonetically more conservative variant and it has been part of some dialects all along. And for some reason it has become a marker of group affiliation. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4845 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 50 of 73 20 June 2014 at 8:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Here's one from the US midwest which has always irked me, although I know that it's well established there. They use "anymore" with the meaning "nowadays". As in, "Anymore, I like to wear a tie."
This website has a brief discussion of it. The website, by the way, is a fabulous website for looking up common errors in English. I have a simple rule for "anymore". In most cases you should be able to substitute "some more". If not, then you're probably misusing it. Another one which bothers me a lot anymore is mixing up me and I. The old problem is that people used to say, "Him and me are friends," "Jane and me went to the cinema." Of course they should be, "He and I are friends," and "Jane and I went to the cinema." I know this usage was beat out of us in school, but I think more and more people make the opposite problem, using "I" when it should be "me". Like the other error, it is usually when there are two people involved ("Jane and I", etc). For example, "The pizza is for Frank and I." I always suspected this was due to overcompensation about the "me" error, and the same website agrees. I also have a simple rule for the me/I problem. If you drop the second person, then it becomes clear which pronoun you should use. Nobody would say, "Me went to the cinema," so it should be, "Jane and I went..." Nobody would say, "The pizza is for I," so it should be, "The pizza is for Frank and me." And yes, I did use the midwest "anymore" in the fourth paragraph, just to see how it felt. I feel icky. Edited by Jeffers on 20 June 2014 at 8:24am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7141 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 51 of 73 20 June 2014 at 10:54am | IP Logged | ||
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There's also How to talk Minnesotan.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5143 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 52 of 73 20 June 2014 at 12:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I seem to be a lot more permissive for the spoken language than the written one; I find misuse of "it's" and things like "could of" as annoying as most of us, yet in speaking I'm not too bothered. I do get a bit confused by conditional phrases like "if I would have done it" instead of "if I had done it", which I hear every so often. There are some "incorrect" usages you hear in Scotland, like using the past tense as the participle ("I've went" instead of "I've gone"), but I grew up hearing these so they just seem like a normal part of the local language even if I tend not to use them myself.
In writing, joining words together seems to be really common amongst people I know, even fairly educated ones. "Alot" is the classic example but I also see "aswell" really frequently. It's a bit surprising since browsers have built-in spell checking these days... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4604 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 53 of 73 20 June 2014 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't like:
a) Canadian / Californian vowel shift (think San Fernando Valley, Calgary or Vancouver): yellow [jæloʊ] bed [bæd] US [jʊ æs] mom [mɔ:m] lot [lɔ:t] b) Northern Cities vowel shift (common in Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo): mom [mæ:m] adopt [əˈdæːpt] adapt [əˈdeːpt] bad [be:d] c) L-colored rounding of the preceding vowel: culture ['kɒltʃɚ] pulse [ pɒls] ultimate ['ɒltəmət] involve [ɪnˈvɒːlv] collage [ˈkɒ:lɪʤ] wolf [wolf]/[wɒlf] full [fol]/[fɒl] adult [əˈdolt] / [əˈdɒlt] d) bald-bold merger (both pronounced as [bɔ:ld]) e) mirror-nearer un-rhyming f) inconsistent low back merger (pronouncing ''fall'' as [ fɒ:l /fɔ:l] (rounded), but ''falling'' as [ ˈfɑːliŋ ] (with a non-rounded vowel) g) L-vocalization (common in the UK): will [wɪʊ/wɪw], peel [pi:ʊ/pi:w], dolls [dɔʊz/dɔwz] + common in the US: almost ['oʊmoʊst] h) code-cold-called-culled merger (a combination of d) + g) ). etc. I like listening to native speakers with clear diction, like Lana del Rey ;) Her pronunciation matches the one indicated in MW's Learner's Dictionary (which is a rare thing, since neutral American English is hard to find in real life, there are 16 regional dialects/accents of American English, according to professor Labov). Edited by Medulin on 20 June 2014 at 6:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stolan Senior Member United States Joined 3968 days ago 274 posts - 368 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Thai, Lowland Scots Studies: Arabic (classical), Cantonese | Message 54 of 73 20 June 2014 at 7:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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There's been so much talk of mergers, has there been any phonological complexification at all in any English
dialect? Because it looks as if it is only simplification that has been happening. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| DaisyMaisy Senior Member United States Joined 5316 days ago 115 posts - 178 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish Studies: Swedish, Finnish | Message 55 of 73 21 June 2014 at 7:51am | IP Logged | ||
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The word criteria used as singular. I hear this at work all day. Such as, "We have a criteria for that", or "This criteria is used for...." I get corrected by my boss when I write: "These criteria" or "this criterion". Sigh.
Actually this same boss has a uniquely annoying take on "haphazard", which she thinks is "halfhazard". I get emails that say, "This is a halfhazard criteria, please correct"..... Ack! It's no wonder I have a headache at the end of the day. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4845 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 56 of 73 21 June 2014 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | ||
Daisy, I think you win! This discussion has reached its peak. "Criteria" used in singular is a losing war, like "dice". But "halfhazard" is great. I might start to use that just to see what people do! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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