LANGUAGE BUT DIFFERENT

BY DAVID CRYSTAL

We use language to Express our thoughts, form of relationships with others, and built communities. The focus is always on the individual. If you study language you study people and people are different as chalk from cheese. So their language will be different too.

Sometimes it is regional background that makes the difference. If you hear someone say That is a bonny wee child, the speaker is probably from Scotland, because words as wee (little) and bonny (pretty) are hardly ever used anywhere else.

Often it is social background that makes the difference. In 1950s in Britain there was a lot of publicity about how upper-class (U) people used different words from those who used by other classes (non U). U speakers had luncheon (or lunch) in the middle of the day and dinner in the evening. Non-U speakers, had dinner in the middle of the day. Luncheon is rare today, but there is a still social divide between lunch and dinner.

Above all, these days, it is technology that makes the difference. The internet allows people to express their individuality in ways that are inconceivable few years ago. Emails vary from highly formal ( Dear Professor Crystal) to highly informal ( Yo, David!!). Older people often keep the rules of punctuation and capitalization they once learned, younger people often try out NEW WAYS ( I don’t think so- LOL).

BUT TIMES ARE CHANGING. AS MORE OLDER PEOPLE START USE THE NET, THEY ARE ALSO USING THE LATEST ABREVIATIONS MORE AND MORE. BRB ( be right back).

And you, do you really think that Rich people speak differently to poor people?