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Oct. 26, 2008 I don't pretend to be the best at grammar or even
at pronunciation, but; I do have a basic understanding of my native language.
Sorry that I can't say the same for many others, especially those who are
prominent in the media and elsewhere.
The other day I heard a news anchor on Headline
News pronounce the word magistrate, mag(hard G
sound)strate. Than I heard another talking head (this one a so-called
educator) pronounce the word ask, axe. Yet another
so-called educated individual on the news (another channel), stated the
following sentence; "They were going to attend the conference at they
church". Huh???
I wish that I could say that this was the first
time that I had heard so-called educated professionals miss-pronouncing words in
a language that was foreign to me but passed for English, but it wasn't. I'm
also sure that it won't be the last time either.
When I attended college I struggled with grammar
and often had to take some pretty embarrassing criticism in front of an entire
class for inserting too many commas in a term paper; the teacher called me "the
comma queen"), so I began to pay attention to how I spoke and how I
wrote. It was as a result of this humiliation that I became acutely aware of how
other people used the language and what made me super sensitive to errors in
pronunciation.
The saddest thing of all is that these errors seem
to be acceptable and no one bothers to correct anyone or take them to task for
sitting in front of millions of watchers, some of whom might be impressionable
young people, while butchering the English language. Some words have even been
added to the dictionary which to me is a total cop out. Instead of fixing the
problems the powers that be have simply incorporated them into our daily lives
by honoring the mistakes and calling them real words.
Is it okay for our culture to change the way that
words are spelled or pronounced or is it simply laziness? Either way, I find it
appalling and a sign of the times.
If there is no one to teach children how to
correctly pronounce English or let them know that the word they are using either
doesn't exist or is being mangled then what will our language sound like when
some of these impressionable young people have grown up and are attempting to
present themselves (or should I say "theyselves"?) to the
world?
I tried to write to a news show to point out the
error of the anchor's ways and the only reply I received was a short note
telling me that they valued the skills of their news person. Instead of
acknowledging the error, they condoned it by making excuses. Exactly what skills
were they referring too in their reply? If a person who speaks publically messes
up the English language in a country that speaks that language primarily what
hope is there for our language to survive?
I suppose that I could write an article for the UK
that was filled with the various miss-pronunciations that I have been witnessing
but I'm afraid that no one would understand me. Or worse...maybe everyone
would!!
P.S., I am still the "comma queen" as many of
you will note while reading my articles. Those silly little buggers still
seem to creep into my writing. My saving grace is that I can at least pronounce
the words that I am typing.... at least according to the language that I
learned; the apparently forgotten language.
------------ About the author: Meri has a Medical/Legal background and is a former forensic researcher specializing in psychological profiling. Visit the Xlibris Bookstore! Email: writers2@cox.net Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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