The More Things Stay The Same (pt.2)

This is part two of a new, three part series called The More Things Stay The Same.

Not knowing any other language, I'm going to stick to discussing English. I will however make the wild and completely baseless assumption that what follows applies to a great many other languages, if not all of them. The English language (See: All languages) is being butchered. People today, MTV and that rap nonsense have ruined the way we converse. And don't even get me started on that internet. Lol.

Maybe 'butchered' and 'ruined' lack the necessary impact to truly convey how bad the situation is. It's probably due to my modern day vocabulary that I fail in this instance, honestly I'm surprised I didn't just tell you how much it totally sucks. No doubt any one of my ancestors would employ a word far more impressive to describe the current decimation the English language has been suffering the past twenty odd years.

The above complaint isn't restricted to a disgruntled few born before the early eighties. Ironically, a great many people my own age, and younger, believe the direction English is heading in is not only detrimental to the advancement of future generations but a sure sign that the bulk of today's youth grow increasingly stupid, much more so than our far more eloquent forebearers. Ignoring the fact that world illiteracy rates consistently decrease every year the core issue is less about who can actually read and write, but what it is they're reading and writing. Wtf.

A kid who grew up in the nineties, speaks like a kid who grew up in the nineties. This is a hard pill to swallow for some of those who grew up in the sixties. Like myself, you've probably sat as children of previous eras, then grownups in your eyes, have adamantly stated with absolute certainty and conviction that their children speak in a confusing and idiotic fashion. It seems likely then, that every generation before theirs also spoke in the exact same manner, of course this is a ludicrous statement. A kid who grew up in the sixties speaks like a kid who grew up in the sixties, not like a kid who grew up in the 40's.

Naturally, a good portion of those nineties kids will grow up and complain about the way these crazy kids of the 00's are ruining English for everyone. Language evolves. I don't speak the way my grandparents did, and I doubt they speak the way theirs did. Attempt to read something from the Middle Ages some time, to modern minds it's barely comprehensible. Readable, certainly, you might know all the words, but no one outside of a Renfaire has spoken that way in hundreds of years.  If language didn't change, if each generation didn't find it's own way of communicating, we would all still be grunting at one another, a series of oogs and gahs. Bogo the caveman probably wasn't too impressed when he overheard his kids saying 'Hello' to the neighbors.

Peace out, yo.