It's really (May) God bless America. It's a wish, a prayer.
Perhaps Scoats objects to ordering God to perform a parochial blessing?
Perhaps Scoats objects to ordering God to perform a parochial blessing?
No, I think Joe is right. Some people might be uncomfortable with the fact that the 'may' is understood.
But we say things like 'Enjoy your meal' and 'Have a good day' - and although sometimes out of sheer bloody-mindedness I like to take these as orders, and dislike them, I know they are really in the subjunctive - (lost largely in English, like 'Vive le roi' in French) and simply express a wish.
May the Force be with you.
. . .from May to December. . .
Being an Australian and supposedly not having an accent, thanks to my strident, German raised mother (ontop of travelling and living in other countries...) do any other Australians get asked about Cricket all the time?
Was anyone else Australian out there, around 25 - 30 now having to teach themselves grammar due to our school system about 15 - 20 years ago decided that we only needed to know that a verb was "a doing word" and a noun is a "person, place or thing". Being in France and with the French and their pedantic ideas of their language, I have now in my possession a book called "English Grammar for Students of French"... makes a hell of a difference. Makes me really disappointed in my countries ideals about education in the 70's. Had a teacher that banned "got" as a verb when I was 11. Thought about it ever since.
Something grammatical that I dislike, and they are both right:
hanged & hung
jail and gaol (was corrected by an ENGLISH teacher at school that the later was incorrect... I wasn't born in America as far as I am concerned)
I also dislike Americanisms creaping into MY LANGUAGE (why change our particular "dialect"?)
I don't like being called a "guy" or "folks" (maybe that is my mother talking?)
nor bidness (business), gumment (government) or unon mooment (union movement); but that is Australia for you. Love it and hate it.
I'm not saying there is anything wrong, I just don't understand it. It's not like you're talking to God, which would need a comma. "God, please bless America." The way it is always used implies you are talking to other people and informing them that God blesses America. And to say "God bless America," to mean "God does indeed bless America," doesn't work for me.
Sorry, that last post was out of place. I was responding to Merry Andrew's post on the previous page.
Yes Ben, sadly your experience is not unique. My German teacher (I was an adult learner) bemoaned the fact that he could not teach german grammar properly to younger adult students because they had no concept of their own grammar.
My peeve today is actually something I don't understand about the southern english accent.
When a southerner says "can" and "can't" it sounds like "ken" and "kahnt" and what I don't understand is, why does the vowel sound change?
With north Britons, it doesn't...well maybe a bit, in Liverpool. And with N. Americans, it doesn't either.
After reading all of the posts since I was last here, it makes a lot more sense to me.
Hey, McTag. You are making a sweeping generalization about Southern speak in the U.S. Not all Southerners pronounce can-ken, etc. It all depends on the family background, and I'm taking a bit of a guess, the level of education, but that's not always true either. If you have ever heard Jimmy Carter speak, he pretty well exemplifies Georgia's accent. Virginia, on the other hand, has a very pleasing sound to their drawl.
In the study of phonetics, it has to do with what used to be termed, "lazy speech ", but many elocutionists have decided that the tongue's placement at the roof of the mouth, may lead a speaker to find the closest route to the phonemes, etc. For example, many Americans pronounce income tax, ingcome tax because the tongue follows that route.
There is nothing more pleasing to me than the sound of a clipped British accent, however, be it the London type or cockney. <smile>
Thanks Letty.
I did not make it very clear, I now realise, but when I mentioned "southerner" I was referring to people in the south of England.
McTag wrote:When a southerner says "can" and "can't" it sounds like "ken" and "kahnt" and what I don't understand is, why does the vowel sound change?
With north Britons, it doesn't...well maybe a bit, in Liverpool. And with N. Americans, it doesn't either.
In Boston (Massachhusetts), you will often hear "can't" pronounced "kahnt", but "can" pronounced with a short a.
George, I keep thinking of Kennedy's putting an "er" on Cuba. Regionalisms and colloquialisms. They hold my attention and delight my ear. I still claim, and always will, that sound is everything.
What we must do, is never judge a person by his speech, for it is a social thing.
Tonight, I did a search of myself, and came up wanting, but that's another story.
McTag, sorry for the confusion. One other point. When Southerners say "yawl" they do NOT refer to one person. That's a common misconception.
Damn I love language, but despise grammar.
The Boston accent, as exemplified by President Kennedy's spech patterns, has several unique anomalies. Bostonians seem to have a difficulty with the letter R. They will add it to words where it doesn't belong (as in Letty's example of saying 'Cuber' for Cuba). But I've figured out where all those extra Rs come from. The thrifty Bostonians keep them handy, after having dropped them from several words where they
do belong. They will say 'mirra' for mirror and 'plumma', meaning plumber. Well, hell, they've gotta put those unused letters
somewhere.
ahhh... dropping of letters, a common Australian pastime
some other I liked (but it is mispronouncing other languages):
foc-a-chia (foccacia) - like the chia pets
la-de (latte) make that "de" flat like demand
mer-si boo-coup (merci beaucoup) perhaps only Australian's can hear that one?
by the way, thank you Setanta for the American History on the evolution of their dictionary.
Don't ever consult a Macquarie Dictionary - the person who edited it is a very lazy person indeed. Australian...
Benco said "Something grammatical that I dislike, and they are both right:
hanged & hung
jail and gaol (was corrected by an ENGLISH teacher at school that the later was incorrect... I wasn't born in America as far as I am concerned)
- as a lexicographer, I would say hanged is only correct for death by hanging and hung should not be used in that context - since the death is obsolete, perhaps that use is now
jail and gaol are both correct, but gaol looks stupidly archaic to Brits.
I love the way Americans assume southerner means American southerner! I used to put my location as The Southwest - but got too many assumptions of California.
As for can and can't - who said southerners were logical? It's just an immediate marker of southernness. And Scots presumably say can and canna...
Why don't people nowadays say the L in vulnerable?
