Evolution of English

 I used to be an English language Nazi, although not as much as some other people I know. But having children kind of cures you of some inconsiderations. I felt bad for my Asperger son's teachers when he would point out their mistakes or correct student answers. I'm still coaching him on that, over and over again; he still thinks that it is his duty to do so, and that those he's correcting would appreciate knowing the right answer. But that's another issue. My know-it-all daughter continually corrects people, especially when she misheard them. At least it provides a real-time example for my son to see how it feels when corrected. It takes a lot of patience when you have little smarty-pants in your house. Nobody appreciates having their mistakes exposed.

After marrying into a family where members have ADD, Dyslexia, and other suspected learning disabilities, I am more lenient toward grammar and spelling mistakes than I used to be. In fact, it hurts me when people post their pet peeves about grammar on facebook. Everyone has weaknesses and [one of] mine is math; other people have a much harder time with English, and I allow them to be as human as I am with the things that give me trouble.

But, as humans all are, I am a hypocrite because I still have some of those pet peeves. At least I know better now than to point them out to people (except that I'm doing it right here). I am not saying that these pet peeves are necessarily wrong. But there are a few trends and changes I find exasperating.

There are some slang words and phrases that really grate on my nerves:

"my bad" -- a phrase that originated when I was in junior high that still hasn't fallen out of use. It drives me as crazy as "ain't" and I will not let my kids say it because I think it makes them sound like ignorant rednecks.

"chicks" -- degrading to women. I think it's only appropriate when you are referring to easy women who you don't respect.

"chillax" = chill, relax

Denominalization especially irritates me; in the last 5 years, so many nouns have become verbs, and verbs have become nouns. Now I wouldn't mind if there wasn't already an appropriate way to express using a noun: "I became her friend on facebook" instead of "I friended her." "Send me a message" is now "message me."

I hate how texting (another noun-turned-verb) and the use of acronyms have replaced the use of real phrases: "Lol." And how everyone has truncated words just to speed up communication: "Thanks for the invitation" morphed into "Thanks for the invite."

Oh, I readily admit that I have reluctantly climbed onto the bandwagon. When in Rome... If I didn't use terms the way they had mutated, and instead used the traditional way of saying things, people would think my language was archaic or that I'd been living in a cave for the last 10 years. True, I don't care to stay on top of trends, but when I see how people think my Asperger son is weird for saying "I'll select the sampler plate" at a restaurant, I acknowledge that I can't hold onto my traditional phraseology.

I realize that advances in technology necessitate inventing new words and coining new phrases. I also realize that it is a particular trait that makes the English language what it is. It is made possible, in part, by the fact that, unlike other languages, the infinitive does not take a separate ending. However, I find it as degrading to the beauty of the language as using the word "chick" to describe a nice girl. For me, it is another regression of America, another way to dumb down our people. I think it's ugly and disrespectful to an art I deeply love.

Addendum: I hope he doesn't mind my sharing, but I will agree to the one who said he hated the word "sucks" and how casually it is used. Unfortunately, I have not broken that habit, and I can't exactly scold my children for saying it either when I'm the one from whom they learned it. It's one of those "Christmas Story" moments when I hear one of them say it and cringe.