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Uriel:
I wouldn't make to much of this. The level of literacy in the English language - whether in Britain or the colonies - was not very high in the 18th Century.
I'd argue too that education in the UK is no less egalitarian than the US.
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"Well, I have to say that i'm always thought of "whom" as more of a British usage than an American one -- i usually avoid it as much as possible, myself. "
The words "I" and "I'm" should ALWAYS be capitalised (see other thread on this topic).
This shows that the British DO have a better grasp of English than the Americans.
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"A brawny Italian-American defendant from New Jersey who tells the court "I ain't sayin' nothin'" isn't cleverly telling us "I'm going to say something." "
He certainly is.
"I ain't saying nothing" means that he is going to say something.
Study "I ain't saying nothing" very very carefully and you'll agree.
He ISN'T going to say nothing, so obviously he's going to say something.
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And it's "defendent", not "defendant."
Sheesh. Americans and their "knowledge" of the English language.
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<<Uriel:
I wouldn't make to much of this. The level of literacy in the English language - whether in Britain or the colonies - was not very high in the 18th Century. >>
I wouldn't make too much of it either ;) , and it certainly doesn't have any bearing on contemporary life. I just thought it was an interesting thing to put in a historical novel, since the author himself is English, and he was obviously trying to make a comment. And it tied in with some of Aquatar's comments as well.
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Uriel:
I seem to have a problem with my PC tonight.
Is there a lot of odd, addlepated random text showing up on your monitor too?
Oh wait, never mind.
It's only Adam.
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Oh look, I'm back at antimoon, after Kirk (still the lamest roommate ever, God love him) pointed out to me an egregious moment of idiocy on behalf of Brennus (my least favorite Celtic chieftain anyway).
C'est vrai, greg, c'est vrai. It is a massacre indeed.
Brennus, you wrote:
"I remember reading an article in 1968 which said that despite all of the complaining by Black Americans about second class citizenship status, the average Black kid in the U.S. still had a better chance of going to college than the average White kid in England."
You may want to keep in mind the cultural context of 1968 and that articles certainly may not reflect actual objective truth. And this quote just betrays your ignorance. Complaining? As an African-American, I'm annoyed, irritated and more importantly astonished at your condescention. It must've been hard for those black Americans, complaining all the time about racism. I understand that you're trying to point out what you conceive as a greater educational egalitarianism in the United Kingdom (which I assume you meant, instead of England) than compared to the United States, but honestly, my dear Brennus, a singular article written in the midst of the civil rights movement and with the attendant prejudicial influences on either side is not necessarily the best prop to your argument.
I'm back to reading on Victorian colonialism, and drinking my amarula. I miss South Africa. And antimoon. How are the rest of all of you?
--Tyrone.
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You'll be from Ireland, than, with a name like that.
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D6270BC: yeah, I get that static on my computer, too. I just scroll past without stopping, and it just fades into the background.
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Incidentally,
26,500,000 Google hits for "defendant"
1,810,000 Google hits for "defendent"
Sheesh. Adam and his "knowledge" of the English language.
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<<And it's "defendent", not "defendant." >>
Nooo, it's 'defendAnt'.
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As my many postings have clearly shown, only we British people speak, write and spell our great English language correctly.
But it is sadly true that the non-English elements of Britain, the Scottish, the Irish and worst of all the Welsh, have the most difficulty with English.
It is their simplified forms of our language that have had the most influence on the American dialect and are responsible for its sloppiness and crudity of expression.
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Adam
'But it is sadly true that the non-English elements of Britain, the Scottish, the Irish and worst of all the Welsh, have the most difficulty with English.
It is their simplified forms of our language that have had the most influence on the American dialect and are responsible for its sloppiness and crudity of expression'.
Please provide some comparative examples of this.
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Examples are 'gonna' and 'wanna' which came to America with the Irish in the Nineteenth Century.
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<<Please provide some comparative examples of this.>>
Aquatar, I know you're relatively new here but most of us have found that it's not worth even trying to have a reasonable discussion with Adam. He just posts his ill-informed/skewed nonsense and we ignore it and go on. Works well enough.
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