I love English, I love language, which is why it frustrates me that I am not better at learning other languages, and why I persevere with learning Gaelic!
On of the things I like is the way language changes and evolves, which my family would find amusing because I’m forever correcting grammar, or commenting on incorrect usage. I guess I should accept ‘different to’, I was sat’ (ugh!) and other deviations… although I struggle with ‘could/should/would of’…
I love all the new and diverse words which modern technology has brought us (not bought us!) When I first started using a computers in the 1980’s I loved the technical terms which we just take for granted now, ‘icons’ for example, always conjured up a tiny but perfect religious painting encrusted in gold, ‘widows and orphans’ has such a Dickensian feel, ‘cookies’ – what my mum used to make and then passwords – having grown up playing spy games which involved passwords (bakéd beans’ was our favourite) it was almost thrilling to have to ‘enter password’!
I have to accept that much of what I now read on the net has American spellings, color/colour, woolen/woollen, and American vocabulary pants/trousers, cookie/biscuit (my mum’s cookies were very different from biscuits – maybe I should bake some?) and since I am rather snooty about L’Acadamie Française which resists the introduction of franglais words into their language, should I really resist Americanisms because long ago when I was young they were deemed incorrect?
Texting and instant messaging has brought a whole new range of contractions and abbreviations, the most famous probably is ‘lol’ – ‘laugh out loud’ (not ‘lots of love’!) I do find when I’m writing notes with a pen and paper I use these abbreviations as a sort of short hand, u/you, r/are, luv/love, and even txt/text. I’m sure if I’d had this system (it has become a system) when I was studying, my notes would have been fuller and more readable when I came to revise! As a teacher I didn’t find that my students confused text and correct spellings,although they did make accidental errors, and it was certainly very useful for them when we were writing notes on a poem or play, for eexample or they were planning an essay and were in full flow to scribble down text message style notes. It rarely appeared in their finished work.
I was amused by my children using the word ‘lol’ in conversation which started as text speak, and interested how it changed into a verb ‘I really lolled at that’ ‘I was lolling at him”, and its extensions ‘rofl’ and ‘lols/lolz’. LMAO, and LMFAO never transferred properly into new words, just as well – as a mother I couldn’t condone swearing (not by my children anyway, what I say and what my characters say is different – obviously!)
I use the word ‘lol’ and ‘lols’ and it has taken on a new shade of meaning – it isn’t the same as exclaiming ‘how funny!’ or ‘what a laugh!’
Lois Elsden 
Lois,
In nursing, we often use lol to refer to a Little Old Lady.
I have noticed some differences in the meaning of certain phrases here in Tennessee as compared to the way we use the same phrases in Louisiana and Mississippi.
In MS and LA, if we say, “I don’t care to stop at Wendy’s for a burger,” we mean: NO I do not want to get a burger from Wendy’s.
In Tennessee, if they say, “I don’t care to stop at Wendy’s for a burger,” they mean: SURE, we can stop by Wendy’s for a burger, I really don’t mind if we stop there. I’m not choosey. That’s fine with me.
In MS and LA, if we don’t give a rat’s ass about something and we want to express that we don’t care, we say, “I couldn’t care less about fly fishing.” We mean that it is simply not possible for us to care any less for fly fishing than we already do.
In Tennessee, they say, “I could care less about fly fishing,” when they are trying to express that they don’t like fly fishing at all. This doesn’t make sense to me as it seems that they care to a certain degree if it’s possible for them to care less.
In MS and LA if we are referring to a habit or routine, we might say, “In the evenings, I usually take a walk around the pond before I take a shower.”
In Tennessee, they say, “Of an evening, I usually take a walk around the pond before I take a shower.”
I am fascinated by languages, too. And I share the same chagrin that I am not good at learning other languages. I do enjoy listening to different English accents and dialects. I love to talk to folks for whom English is their second language. I love how they make English their own with their choice of phrases and accents.
Take care, Lois! And keep writing. I don’t always leave a comment, but I am a faithful daily reader.
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Thank you Jordana, and how interesting! It’s amazing isn’t it how the same words can mean such different things.
I guess there have been times when you haven’t quite ‘got’ what people mean when you’re living somewhere new… here in the west country, they use ‘to’ where we would use from… ‘Where did you get that new book to?’ = ‘where did you get that new book from’… that’s not so bad but when people say ‘where did you get that bus to?’ meaning where did you get on the bus, rather than what was the destination of the bus, it can lead to a real muddle!
Also some words, particularly slang can mean the opposite – for example, in one part of Manchester ‘bobbins’ meant good, in another part it meant really awful!
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To and from? Wow, that would be very confusing when trying to get instruction or directions. Another phrase I thought of is “making groceries.” In MS and in North and Central Louisiana, people say, “We’re going to BUY groceries”. In South Louisiana, folks say, “We’re going to MAKE groceries.” One grocery store chain had a radio advertisement with a jingle that went, “Making groceries, making groceries. Making groceries, Schwegman’s style!”
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