Time, usage, technology and ignorance play a large part in the evolution of language. English, as we Americans speak it, is a glorious mix of many languages, making it notably different from English as the English people speak and understand it. Over time, we have added a large assortment of slang and idioms that have been accepted and relegated to standard usage. In some ways, my grandparents and my grandchildren seem to have barely spoken the same language, yet I’ve noted at least one eerie similarity in their writing. My grandmother used a combination of numbers, symbols, abbreviations and phonetic spellings — a precursor of the texting widely used today.
During my lifetime, I’ve noticed a number of changes in our language, some due to ignorance, continuous misuse and even fear. Many commonly-used German words and expressions disappeared with two world wars. Colorful, useful adjectives such as “gay” and ‘’queer” fell out of popularity with the growth of homophobia, as did even the name of one insurance company known by the acronym AIDS during the unsettling years before the disease became understood and treatable.
Spellings have changed. Once, Halloween was spelled with an apostrophe between the two E’s, as the supposed abbreviation for “All Hallows’ Eve.” I assume that grammarians simply gave up on the problem as unsolvable. And I blame the ad agencies directly for some of the poor spelling exhibited by our school children. Their cereal boxes exhibit such words as KIX, FROOT-LOOPS and RICE KRISPIES before they set off for school. They enjoy PLA-DOH and SNO-CONES. Who are they to believe, their teacher or their favorite cartoon character?
Ads are also responsible for some of the worst grammar that clutters the airways. The Culligan Man promises women luxurious hair. Apartments and life-styles can be luxurious, but healthy hair and houseplants are luxuriant. That woman who relaxes on her Moon Pod after a hard day of hiking says, “I lay down on my Moon Pod and it (her tiredness) all goes away.” If she’s speaking in the past — lay is the past tense of lie — then she should say it all went away. If she’s in the present, then she should say, “I lie down on my Moon Pod…” In either case, I can’t help wondering how those people get up out of those Pods, or chairs, or whatever they are. They look far too similar to beanbag chairs, which are also impossible to get out of without rolling off onto the floor and then struggling to one’s feet.
I’ve seen the day when we couldn’t rely on even the President to set a good example. No, I’m referring to the one who insisted that those terrible missiles were “nucular bombs” Mispronunciations seem to catch on easily; mischievous, harassment and Caribbean are fairly recent examples. Military leaders have been responsible for mistaken usage of military-specific terms such as “materiel” and “parameters.” Aside from the military, there are words that are specific to other areas of human endeavor, including music, art, medicine, technology, sports, plumbing, transportation, carpentry and many others. To take those words and apply them to other areas where there are already adequate terms only serves to broaden their meanings and make them less specific for their original purposes, thus weakening and blurring them — damaging our language.
Some words are becoming obsolete or enjoying changed definitions. Take the word “plow” for instance. Once spelled “plough” as for a farm implement for turning the soil, or for the act of doing so, it has come to mean, also, to make one’s way laboriously (through a crowd or a difficult task.) ‘Til was once the abbreviation for until, rather than today’s till which already had two entirely different meanings (as a noun, a cash box; as a verb, to turn over, as the soil.) Words and meanings change — sometimes too rapidly. New words and definitions are being added yearly. Maybe we all should go out and buy new dictionaries?
A former volunteer and substitute teacher in the Solon schools, Milli is an artist and poet who lives near Morse where she also creates unique greeting cards and handmade books.