Grandma in JC

@sceptical guy wrote:

There are lots of complaints about poor grammar, and I never take them seriously; why is this you may ask? Well coz I can write some pretty bad grandma mesel.

Is this to do with humble originis? you may well ask – the answer is a simple yes, I was dragged up poor.

In fact there are two grammars, two languages; it’s why furriners can speak much more correct English than the home-grown.

There is the formal, correct English of the written word. This is BBC English RP (Received pronunciation). It is a very very odd style, full of odd rules about prepositions and prohibitions. Most people can’t speak it, and it’s not meant to be spoken; it’s meant to be written. Furriners find it very hard to learn, but they are horrified when they come here because having mastered the rules they suddenly find that nobody obeys them outside the elite. It’s mainly derived from the rules of Latin, which is why public school kids who learn latin are good at it, but it’s not simply derived from Latin.

Public school kids are taught to rule the rest of us slobs, which is why some of us slobs when we get an education try to ape public school manners and snobbishness. English grandma and spelling are an excellent way in which to establish this superiority.

The second English is the English everybody else speaks. It’s not derived fomr Latin, but is a real hodge-podge of thingummyjigs and you-know-what-I-means. It’s a very virile and changing language, is always spoken so that when it appears on the written page it appears distinctly odd. It can only be really understood in face-to-face chat, because it’s bound up with inflections of voice, with personal stresses and eye contact. People who speak it are taught by the elite that they are inferior becasue they have no grandma (grammar for the formal amongst us).

The rules of verse were all drawn up according to the Latin rules of grandma in the 16th century, and are awful. Only the worst poets obey them. The best poets louse em up.

I have no problem with lousing up the grandma. I’s muggin da Queen’s English,as one guy said.

I’ve never heard of ‘grammer’ known as ‘grandma’! :oops: :lol:

@sceptical guy wrote:

There are lots of complaints about poor grammar.

True Scepital, but if you ignore Tel he might just shut up :D

@wordsworth60 wrote:

@anc wrote:

I’ve never heard of ‘grammer’ known as ‘grandma’! :oops: :lol:

It’s a reference to variations on the old joke:

Boy walks into a shop “Gimme summa that quick”

Shopkeeper: “Young man! Where’s your grammar?”

Boy: “She’s outside waiting, that’s why you have to be quick!”

I, maybe, I think, have caught on! :lol:

I always equate grammer and manners together – its a perfect feedback loop

when one side falters the other naturally erodes as well