So I have been reading way too much fanfiction lately (mostly P&P), and the stories I have been reading constantly say "drug" when the proper word is meant to be "dragged". This isn't the only thing I realised about current language.
Emoticons are the new way or shortening words or even entire phrases and, though I do use emoticons occasionally, it kind of freaks me out to see the English language being changed into pictures. People don't talk to each other face to face anymore but over phone screens and computer screens. We all know how tedious typing complete words are so the easiest and fastest solution is to start using abbreviations, the worst I think is spelling a word how it sounds as "tho" just because it sounds right it is right. I'm not complaining about simple abbreviations because I just used one in this sentence but is there a point when it becomes too much?
Is our language evolution damaging our English and is now proper English considered a talent, an accomplishment, as French and German were for ladies 200 years ago?
I am assuming that English will always be a subject at school but how much are you actually learning from it if as soon as you are out of the classroom you start using what I consider slang again. I'm about to start university and my friend is doing a Bachelor of Fine Arts where she is going to learn Latin and read old books, trying to decipher the meaning at the same time. My question is that in however many years time, is proper English going to be a university course, only destined to be fully known by those who want to understand?
I have actually heard said a couple of times, and witnessed it myself, that people who have learnt English as their second language speak it better than those who have it as a first because they learn it from scratch, understanding "do not" before "don't". I wouldn't be surprised if in the future children, or people in general, will not know that "couldn't" is really "could not" or "shouldn't" translated is the abbreviated version of "should not".
How many common words are being misspelt today? How many years is it until the English language is eradicated and we go back to pictures like we had thousands of years ago? Maybe evolution goes round in circles until we see fit to change it because as far as I thought, writing with symbols and pictures was old news. Or perhaps it will be the new sophisticated way or writing? Only time will tell.
How many common phrases can you get right?
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