Should "murder of the english language" be considered a sin?

Answer 1

The first answerer needs to capitalize the first letter of her sentence. Hey, if you pick on someone, then you should expect it in return.

Murdering the English language iz wen u strt spling wrdz lyke thiz. Or thoze fvking txt msg comershals.

Ahem. I'd beat my child if he or she talked to me in text abbreviations. I'm not joking. That's a kid asking for a spanking.

Anyway, what I have above in my example isn't even English anymore. It's phonetics. Merely missing the capitalization of a word isn't something for which someone should be sent to hell (or Hell, if you prefer).

A sin . . . no. A stern lecture from an English teacher? Yes.

Speaking of which, one of my students e-mailed me. It was atrocious. It featured intentional misspellings, no punctuation, and scary unintentional misspellings. What do you do when students don't bother to send their college English instructor decent e-mails?

Answer 2

It's a very tempting thought.

However, from a linguistic perspective, there is no true form of a language. Everything is just dialects, so you'd have to pick which dialect a person would have to murder. Usually though, when people refer to English, they mean Standard English. So maybe instead we can say, 'can the murder of Standard English in a public forum be considered a sin?'

Answer 3

Perhaps, but it is far too late. English is a living language. It changes constantly adding words, idioms and phrases from seemingly every source it comes in contact with it. So many phrases, words and idioms come into this language from so many sources that etymologists are consistently stumped. Who knows the real origin of, "The whole nine yards" or even the most common American term for intercourse and its most over used expletive. So even the most idiotic of world leaders, blithely butchering his native tongue can be excused his monumental ignorance. There are just too many words, too many homonyms, synonyms. It is simply too easy to use a malaprop. Sin mayhap but since it is usually religious figures who point the finger of judgment -- religious leaders who are often so thoroughly ignorant of their own texts that they frequently fight among themselves about their own deities-- I think I will refrain from casting any stones.

Answer 4

As someone who has studied the English language I can safely say that you are a tool.
Language is a fluid, changing thing.
GET OVER IT.

Answer 5

Language develops like water, it goes where it wants to go and never stays the same.

Answer 6

I worry what in the world are they teaching in school these days. Do they have a class on texting instead of english?

Answer 7

English is continually being "murdered" and reborn. It's not French.

Answer 8

There are a lot of people around here who's native language is not english (I am one of them). I believe they can speak and read correctly in their own languages, but would you stil understand? :-)

Answer 9

A language cannot be "murdered" without your permission.

Answer 10

it would depend...

are you trying to talk english... or are you trying to talk like something else? Whatever language you speak you should try to speak it correctly?

it does annoy me when people don't open up their mouths and speak correctly. I once had to interview someone and all their responses were... ughh... and I was like is that yes or no... and they were like ughh.... Come on people!! talk correctly!