The Murder of the English Language
by Peter Bradwell
To what extent can the UK claim to be the standard-bearer for a particularly authentic English language? Why would it? What are the benefits? What do we gain or lose from abandoning the strictures of an official language?
And there's a further set of problems, based around the links between those standards and a country's heritage and history. This seems to me particularly problematic given English's particular relationsip with it's colonial past.
In the context of a global language, intuitively it feels like the UK's contribution to Global English shouldn't be as the utlimate standard bearer. Language is a particularly powerful political instrument, and the emergence of alternative, appropriated forms of English have been central in colonial and 'post'-colonial struggles.
And further, people learning English often tend to speak with an American accent, having learned via the widespread cultural output of the US' culture industry.
So I wonder what Global English means, and what the UK's role is in that context.
As for the title of this post - it refers to a particularly, erm, militant letter written to Stabroek News, about punctuation and grammar standards in everyday life. It certainly fires people up. If you think you know why, let us know your thoughts by commenting or emailing us.
(£5 for anyone who can spot all the very deliberate language mistakes in this post...)