BristolUK

It's not only English language that evolves is it?

On CBC radio last night I heard someone talking about how some think use of IT has negatively affected the ability to use English but this person said far from that, it's made it better.

There was a brief discussion on one of the great things about English language is how it changes and expressions limited to one field may be extended to another or new expressions are invented while others may become used to mean the opposite of what it used to.

It sounded as if they regarded this as A) an IT (relatively recent) thing and B) it was only English.

Yet how many decades ago did 'wicked' come to mean something good? I can't think of anything else right now but I'm sure there are other examples going back a bit.

As for English only, I can remember some upset in France on the creeping use of expressions like Le Weekend or Le Sandwich.

Doesn't this happen for all languages?

Howefamily

My teen uses the word "lit" to describe what I believe is "fantastic" and the term "roasting" has nothing at all to do with meat.
Its all bizarre to me, maybe I am just getting old.

BristolUK

That rather depends on how one defines meat.

Haven't heard that one. It reminds me of a TV add which I can't really remember properly - something about steeped tea and mum thinks steep is a teen expression? Something like that.

Partially discharged

I'm surprised you heard that on CBC Radio (Radio 1 I assume) as every time I turn it on it seems to be about indigenous injustices, and programmes about other marginalized groups.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CBC_Radio/c...st_program_on/

Before I got the full version of Spotify and could play music on my Spotify playlist through my phone via the car speakers I used to listen to CBC Radio 1 and 2 a lot. In the last year, maybe 10 minutes here and there.

Shard

It's certainly not just English, although with English being the world's reserve language it probably has greater exposure to other languages.

Excellent podcast series on the history of English if anyone (Bats?) is interested:

Episodes | The History of English Podcast

BristolUK

I know what you mean. The Current was always like that.

I really only listen going to bed, when I wake in the night and wake up to in the morning. Just like I used to for 5Live

Most of it during those hours is BBC, Australian and Deutsche Welle produced stuff. I do enjoy the midnight version of As It Happens, although I don't know if it's simply an edited repeat of the earlier one.

There was a scheduling change a few weeks back and the 'encore' of The Current is no longer on so the output I get to hear does seem a bit less 'worthy' than it was.

I had an exception this morning because I heard Kyle MacLachlan was being interviewed on 'q' so I listened on line.

Partially discharged

I used to listen to this show a lot in the 80's/90's when I lived in Toronto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Lines

One time they ran a contest where you had to list your top 20 or so songs of all time and they were going to play them in order etc. Somehow, my top 20 or whatever was the closest to the overall list and my name was called out on the radio as having the most average musical taste in Canada etc and they sent me a whole bunch of LP's.

Oakvillian

Wow - that looks like a lot of content. I may have to indulge!

There have also been a couple of superb TV series on English in the last decade or so, too. Stephen Fry's BBC series was excellent (frankly, anything that includes an episode in which a large chunk of time is taken up by Brian Blessed shouting "bollocks" at the top of his voice has got to be good!); there was another one on ITV in the early 2000s by Melvyn Bragg - The Adventure of English - for which he also wrote the accompanying book.

Shard

It really is very good. I'm only about 7 episodes in myself, but fascinating stuff. "Bollocks" - most likely Germanic origin!

Danny B

My Daughter has developed an upward inflection in the way she talks which gets me triggered

Oink

When we were younger we basically adopted Bill and Ted/Wayne's World speak. A derivation of Valley/surfer speak. Everything good was most excellent', 'bodacious' and 'triumphant' and stuff that was rubbish was 'heinous' or 'bogus', plus include at the beginning and end of in almost every sentence, the word 'dude' and you basically have it. It drove my stepfather up the wall.

cheeky_monkey

roasting ..not the meat kind has been around for decades at least since the early 90s if its the one im thinking of?...where have you been?

Alan2005

Tell me about it. Apparently it's no longer acceptable to say "that's gay" to mean "that's a bit shit". Typical PC soup-of-the-day nonsense

Shard

So that's what that is called.