Snobbery of Language

31/08/2008 15:09:00

I believe that snobbery is really akin to self-deception. Linguistic snobbery is one of the worst. If you have every looked into the reality of language, you will realise that all living language are permanently in a state of flux. They do not stay rigid for any length of time. Moreover, the point of language is primarily to communicate a meaning to one or more other people. If the meaning is clearly understood, then the language has completed its main function.

Many well-educated individuals I have argued with recently would have you believe that the language is going to the dogs and with it the state of the nation or whatever. These people should realise that even Cicero, in the same way, felt his Latin was under threat or in decline. Perhaps there was some basis to Cicero's worries, I mean, Latin is a dead language now.

However, the language we speak is changing and reinventing itself and this is natural phenomenon. Words and expressions shorten themselves to become more efficient or easier to fit into fast flowing chat. The language however does not abbreviate itself back to grunts, rather it is fed with a constant stream of fresh metaphors.

The phrase "Isn't it?" was once "Is it not?" and more recently has become "Innit" in the vernacular of certain mocked individuals. "Innit" is a highly efficient word as it can replace not only "Isn't it" but also, "Wasn't I", "Weren't they", "Wouldn't we", "Wouldn't I" and whole host of other past participle and conditional constructs. Give it a couple of hundred years and "Innit" could be a standard phrase - innit.

Further Reading:
Urban Dictionary definition for 'innit'
The Unfolding of Language - Guy Deutscher

More Blogs