Grammar and Everyday Speaking
What dialect do you think has the best gramar in spoken English. I was watching a movie the other night in which all of the actors were from Northern England, and listening to the grammar I started wondering just how hard it must have been for those kids to learn formal writing in school. I'm not saying that my spoken grammar is perfect, because believe me it isn't, but the grammar in this movie seemed pretty extreme.
So my question is: what dialect do you think has the best spoken grammar in the English language, from a prescriptavist's point of view?
<What dialect do you think has the best gramar in spoken English.>
How can one judge grammar with words like "the best"? Each region uses the grammar it feels necessary in communicating with other users.
<but the grammar in this movie seemed pretty extreme. >
For example?
The best grammar is no grammar.
<The best grammar is no grammar. >
Does that exist?
The best grammar is no grammar should be like
goodest grammar no grammar
OK, so to actually answer your question, "high" grammar or whatever is going to be retained in dialects like RP (or those who attempt it like Hyacinth in "Keeping Up Appearances")...
Maybe Standard American English, but the range of backgrounds and native dialects of people who use it makes it difficult to gauge.
<"high" grammar or whatever is going to be retained in dialects like RP (or those who attempt it like Hyacinth in "Keeping Up Appearances")... >
A good example of the superstandard, don't you think?
Love her, love all those characters. I'm not even an anglophile...
<A good example of the superstandard, don't you think?>
Absolutely lol
"How can one judge grammar with words like "the best"? Each region uses the grammar it feels necessary in communicating with other users."
I knew that someone would say this which is why I said from a prescriptavist's view- a superstandard point of view- a text book point of view. I know that every region has its own standard of grammar and taken from their point of view it is correct.
Kids could care less about rules on WHOM, SHALL or I usage (as in It is I)...
Languages change. The grammarians want every language to become another version of Latin which is a dead language. Language that does not change is a dead language. ''Bad'' grammar of today is correct grammar of tomorrow, it has always been this way...Portuguese is a ''sloppily'' spoken Latin, and Brazilian Portuguese is a ''sloppily'' spoken Portuguese...Linguists see these changes as very normal and natural.
< Language that does not change is a dead language. ''Bad'' grammar of today is correct grammar of tomorrow, >
Indeed. That reminds me of the story about the grammarian who is walking on the beach 200 years ago. He picks up a pebble from the thousands that sit on the shore and he climbs upon a rock and observes the pebble. 200 years later he climbs down with his pebble. All the other pebbles on the beach have changed through time and the to- and-fro action of the waves, but this one pebble remains the same. The grammarian takes the pebble home to protect it from the tides.
Sorry, the above guest was me.