English language - where is it going to? AIBU

"He made a mistake but he owned it".

OK! so whose for going back to speaking Anglo-Saxon?

Just look at this Wikipedia site on the hstory and diversity of our language en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language_influences_in_English

Older people dating right back to those good old Anglo-Saxons have been whingeing about the language being debased by all those younger people with their foreign words, ungrammatic use of Anglo-Saxon, dialect words and slang.

English now exists in many forms. It has the widest vocabulary of any language and we have produced some of the world's greatest writing from Chaucer, Shakespear the King James bible and many other works just because our language is so varied subtle and constantly changing.

So hurrah for all the words and grammatical constructions we hate - and I do have some too - .Some will last, others, like 'welkin' beldam , behoof, esurient, malapert, nubbing cheat, will fall into desuetude.

.... and desuetude - that will fall into desuetude, if it hasn't got there already.

I think it's only fair that nubbing cheats should fall into desuetude.

I quite agree.

In shops the standard “goodbye” when you leave has been replaced with “see you later” as if they are a friend of mine. Can’t they say “goodbye” or even “have a nice day”?

I grit my teeth and bear the many, not altogether felicitous, changes to our language but when I buy a biography of a historical figure, written by a supposed historian, and learn the the 17th century subject of the biography is the ancestor of a mediaeval English monarch... I scream...

The problem that I always have with threads like this is that actually, it's not really about what is correct, it's about personal taste, usually what someone grew up with and therfore thought 'correct'.
Someone dislikes 'gonna' instead of 'going to'; but 'gunna' is a dialect word from my childhood. Someone dislikes 'waiting on the bus' - again a term I have used all my life.
I don't much like 'youse' but it seems standard for Irish people to say it - that was where I first heard it.

I personally dislike Mothers' Day which in my mind is specifically American (and I think Australian) and my children know that I like the term Mothering Sunday as being traditional - but I said to them a few years ago - really, I'm lucky enough that you think of me and send a card, - I shouldn't be picky!

Ghosting, instead of ignoring, a pretentious phrase.

Never heard that one, I have to admit. I have heard of dissing which I suppose means the same, presumably from dismissing.

I am hearing thunk a lot lately what’s that about?
Also why do people start every sentence with So?
News reporters talking about yesterday evening what’s wrong with last night?

Bellanonna

Does the thread title need the “to” ?

Actually, it ought to say "The English Language - Whither goeth?"

I agree that a lot of discussions like this is about fashion. There are a few old fashioned (but not traditional) usages that I find cringeworthy, such as 'why oh why'? 'Simples', 'peeps' and 'rant over' (sorry OP ? ). Words or phrases catch on for a while, usually because of popular culture, but then drop out as quickly as they came in, and when people cling to the dropped out ones it sounds like nails on a blackboard.

I've just remembered another one like that - 'No way, José', and I know I've said it before, but I will never get used to 'Uni'.

Awesome is so overused it has lost its meaning. Lack of vocabulary seems to be the problem. However, what really annoys me is the habit that younger people have of talking at the back of their throats so it sounds almost as if they have a sore throat. Noticed this a few years ago when watching some American tv such as judge Judy! Then I started to hear it in the UK and I find it annoying. Seems to be an affectation of some kind.

I’m not sure that there is a problem with lack of vocabulary so much as the fact that different generations use different vocabulary. We often hear older people objecting to new words, or new usage, when they are adding to the vocabulary of those who use them.

Language is not static, and IMO changes only really matter when meanings are blurred or ambiguous - everything else is really just a question of taste.

The letter 't' in the middle of a word is fast disappearing - 'meeting' becomes 'mee-ing', 'greeting' is 'gree-ing', etc.
I recently wrote a speech for a colleague to deliver. I(carefully) wrote the 'requested" which he changed to 'arksed'.
Oh well,I tried.

nanna8
dissing means disrespecting. Not dismissing.

We used to say, jokingly
‘Seeya, woulden wanna be yer’. Short for ‘see you later,’ which has always been an Aussie way of saying goodbye as long as I remember.
‘How ya goin?’ is still used for ‘How are you?’but I quite like that.