swot

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> ENGARDE!

 

LOL : ) Good way to start ....

>

> My point was that UK vernacular, such as swot, shouldn't get any

> special treatment simply because it's British. That would be

> snobbery.

 

But you said right after that if we were going to use any slang, American

would be ok, since everyone knows it. Why would we give that preferential

treatment? Anyway, I don't believe it's "special treatment." The point is,

someone should be able to speak in his own language and that's all there is

to it. If someone doesn't understand it, they can look it up. It's one word,

not a whole book. Do you really think Americans are so delicate they can't

handle "swot"?! I don't....

 

> Sorry, my bad. I think I may have invented "localised jargon".

> Sounds like an Americanism, no? I am after all a lackey of the

> capitalist running dogs.

 

You are? Gee, how do you feel about that?

>

> I changed to slang because it occurred to me that "swot" isn't

> jargon (usually meaning technical language or, less commonly,

> patois, creoles, and pidgin) at all. How about vernacular?

 

Well sure; maybe jargon is the slang for vernacular

>

> > matter--who don't understand a great number of words. Are we to

> > rid the world of these words for their benefit, sterilise the

> > language so everyone understands a "standard number" or

>

> That's a bit strong isn't it? All I'm suggesting is that we avoid

> using vernacular terms that may be meaningless to our readers and

> that may not even be in their dictionaries.

 

Swot today, tomorrow...?? I don't think it's strong; if it's going to be a

trend, I don't think it's strong enough. It's a word. That's all there is to

it. If an author wants to use it, then let him. I found the word easily

enough online. No big deal. Anyway, most Brits, Aussies, Irish, Kiwis, and

whatever other British-generated countries are out there know what it is.

That's a lot of people I've known the word since I was a kid.

>

> Maybe a little ridiculous. I was just turning the tables on the

> snobbery that surrounds British English.

 

Oh, now it's "British English?" Not proper English, or just plain English,

but British English, and if you have a preference for that, which *is* after

all the root language, then you're a snob? That makes a lot of people who

are interested in formal English or proper English or maintaining a certain

standard in their speech and writing "snobs"...sounds like reverse snobbery

to me. Anyway, I think that's slightly paranoid: Britain has possibly the

most diverse range of accent, dialect, jargon and slang that any one country

can lay claim to. If they really were such snobs about it, they would have

outlawed Liverpool and Yorkshire decades ago

 

> They gave us Shakespeare

> so any word they invent or steal is okay. But if an American uses

> a noun as a verb then they're a Mongol horde desecrating our

> sacred mother tongue. Blah!

 

Hmmm. An anti-Brit, pro-American slang-speak Aussie living in Ireland. Woah,

therapy

 

Anyway, I think it all started when the Americans started giving verbs as

names (like Skip) as names

 

>

> > Again I ask: must we

> > sterilise a language to meet the needs of the uneducated and

> > uninformed,

>

> No.

 

Then what's the problem?

 

Your servant

Braja Sevaki dd