I hate to sound like the grammar police (no, I don't, not really) but I am really getting ticked off with "invite." Invite is a verb. Invitation is a noun. When a host/hostess decides to invite people to a party, they issue invitations. All this is brought on by a neighbor calling to ask if we received an invite to a birthday party--seems some invites got lost in the mail. I lied through my teeth and said we hadn't received our invitation, and had already made plans for that date and couldn't change them now. I ain't goin' to no party hosted by nobody who sends out invites!
Sorry Jane but your post made me laugh. Why? Simply because you sound so much like me!! I hate how people seem to be destroying the English language and my pet hate is when they say things like more better. In most instances the word more is superfluous and really shouldn't be incorporated in the way it is now. If something is better than something else then why should you feel you have to put a more in too? It just doesn't make sense to me to have a more better and more healthier plant, or whatever, than someone else. As for shortening words like invitation - well that really gets under my skin too. Maybe I should just shut up now and go and make a more better invite card for someone.
The one which annoys me most is ' return back'. The back is superfluous as return means to go back. Even heard it on the BBC News the other day.
Actually the British have been complaining about the English language getting beaten up ever since about 1776 when the Americans started changing things. Scroll down to page 9 of this PDF.....invite was used as a noun as far back as 1559. https://www.escholar.manchester.ac....&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS.PDF
That simply means that in 1559 the word was being misused, as it still is. Anyone want to discuss "funnest" instead of "most fun"? The first time I heard "funnest" it was out of the mouth of someone who should have known better (more better?).
Some people are falling into the text speak trap, everything has to be shortened and abbreviated....those I correct. I know proper grammar and yet I use funnest sometimes when it seems to have more meaning for the situation than 'most fun' and I let my inner child hold sway for a few minutes. I will continue to use it when I see fit and I know that grammarians would fall over in a dead faint at my saying funnest but ... insert Rhett Butler's final line in Gone With The Wind here....
I took my dad to the doctor today and the first thing that came out of the dr.s mouth was "DON'T use the word AKS..." who uses the work aks? ASK me a question... Don't aks me anything! He was on a roll. It was really funny since he is such a down to earth doc who has been there since the last doctor left.... back in the early 80's. Same for excavating... I have heard many people say escavating.
How badly has the English language been twisted? I don't know, but Chaucer might have an interesting opinion. The author of Beowulf (whoever he is) might also have something to say. Few now could understand him, but he'd probably have a lot to say. English is a living language. Forcing it to stay stagnant will lead to its total demise. Languages, like people, must move forward and grow. There will be occasional missteps, but things will work out in the long run. I speak not as a grammaratition, just as someone who relies on his native tongue to get his point across the best way he can.
After watching a nature documentary this evening I have another pet hate. When talking about whales why does everyone seem to pronounce it wales? Even when they talked about whales in the waters around the British coast they were saying it. For example: There is evidence that there are killer wales being seen on the northern coast of Wales!!
Eileen, if you ever travel to Texas, prepare for a linguistic shock. In short, Bubba's gonna drive you nuts. You'll hear "'at 'ere" (that there, pronounce as one word) in every other sentence, contractions that confound all reason (ya'll, considered to be singular. All ya'll is plural), whatcha (what are you), and many others. You can, of course, expect to be called Ma'am or Miz ( a combination of Miss and Mrs.) at all times. We may sound funny, but we're taught to be polite. You can also expect your Scottish brogue to melt Bubba on the spot. We've heard each other for years, a pretty lady with a "furrun" soundin' voice is mighty purty.
It is thought that Ancient Greek died out as a living language because it simply ran out of words and was unable to assimilate new ones from other languages. Mind I did have a run in with a critic on a Story publishing site over my (correct) spelling of armour and favour.
Evil Roy is so right. We Texans do have our own language,,if you want to call it that . As to the "invite" it depends on which syllable the emphasis is placed as to what is being said/asked. An invite with emphasis on first syllable,,means the invitation,,if on the last syllable means actually doing it. Most southern ladies are taught this by listening to the generation of older southern ladies. Yes,, I know I am one of those,,older southern ladies but I do not butcher words like that !
The way Texans talk is considered a patois by many, but I feel it's more of a pidgin on its way to becoming a creole. As we like to say: "Texas, it's a whole other state of mind."
