Saturday, February 2, 2013
Collectibles? Are we Yanks?...
I know this is really nit picky but I can't let it go. The new show case in the Post Office to help sell their many collectable coin and stamp first day covers looks lovely and I'm sure will catch the eye of many a collector. But you see the thing is it reads: "Collectibles" That is to say the American way of spelling it. Should it not read: "Collectables" since we are in England. Doesn't matter you say? The English language is evolving anyway, you cry. Poppycock, some of you may say, we should protect the English language from a slow demise into creeping Americanisms and hip hop, gangster slang, alrite. If only Inspector Morse were alive he'd put them straight! I'm not the only one to have commented on their linguistic error according to the lady who served me today and The Post Office has got some explaining to do....
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13 comments:
I'm with you 100% on this one, TB, as the creeping Americanisation of our language is something that annoya me as well.
Unfortunately there is a tendency, especialy from those in the "media", to think it's cool or trendy, to use americanisms in their speech. Well it isn't, so far as I'm concerned, in fact it shows the lack of a decent education and a degree of ignorance.
Annoya me too. It's like Boot's. Now it's incorrectly Boots. Mind you, and credit to TMBC, I wrote to them advising King's Road was incorrectly signposted as Kings Road on three out of four signs. Within a few days all four signs were corrected to King's Road. Shame I missed a fifth sign at the top of Mountfield Park, still Kings Road.
It annoys me when I go into a coffee place and they insist selling me a "Regular" coffee instead of a "Medium" one. Also, (and this isn't an americanism, but it still irritates me; people who say haitch, instead of aitch for the letter h.
Some people in this country even think zed is pronounced zee because they watch too much crappy American junk on television.
I am with you Tim, about people who worry about not dropping their haitches, and I never ask for a 'regular' coffee. Just a 'free' one in Waitrose.
We don't need Americans to bugger up our language. All I can say is: basically, at the end of the day, it's doing my 'ead in........
Another thing which really annoys me, and it seems to be particularly prevalent in Tonbridge, nothing to do with americanisms, or language in general.
Why do people have to spit everywhere? Over the last couple of weeks I've been walking my kids to school in Tonbridge and we have to tiptoe around minefields of evil looking pools of human phlegm on the way there. Literally, you have to keep your eyes to the pavement.
Spitting was illegal from Victorian times to stop the spread of TB. It was though removed from statute when John Major was MP, a shame. Yes it's disgusting.
You mean to tell me that some dozy MP looked at the statute ruling spitting to be illegal, and thought that isn't fair, people should be allowed to spatter the pavements with the content of their lungs at will? This is why I love politicians.
There are dog shit bins all over the place, encouraging dog owners to clean up after their dog, and yet us humans are allowed to bend over and puke up as much filth as they like all over the pavement. Tell you what. I'de rather tread in dog shit.
I think it was due to EEC regs, there are certain ethnic groups who traditionally gob very few paces, and the women are as bad, so to avoid offending the ethnics, gobbling was reintroduced.
Oops that should have been " gobbing as is spitting was re introduced".. Not gobbling , goblins never went out of fashion! The Council is full of em.
Yes I guessed you didn't mean gobbling. I think the ethnic group to which you refer are known as "professional football players".
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