My real name

Everyone remember that word? Refudiate, to refute and repudiate. A gaffe on the part of former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, yet somehow that mistake made its way into the Oxford Dictionary. Chalk it up to the influence of pop culture on all aspects of modern society, I suppose. Aren’t we just such nice and forgiving people? I mean, that is quite a game of limbo we played just to avoid making someone feel stupid. It gives you a nice warm and fuzzy feeling onside, doesn’t it. Well it shouldn’t!

When society willingly accepts - nay - embraces the degradation of it’s language, it is the beginning of the end. Take a look at what happened with Ebonics. I am going to piss quite a few people off which what I am about to say, but feelings be damned! This needs to be said. Ebonics began as a result of racism, inequality and segregation. Excluded from mainstream schools and cut off from the traditional modes of learning so readily available to the fair skinned, African Americans were forced to learn not what schools could teach them, rather what their parents could teach them. 

Of course their parents had been in the same predicament and therefore had never, themselves, received a proper education. Linguistic skill is a difficult trait to pass on by oral tradition alone. Books and a deep knowledge and understanding of the foundations of the language are vital in the transference of language from one generation to the next. Cut off from access to such knowledge by the oppression of their fellow man, African Americans children could only be taught English from what little their parents knew. And so it begins: Ebonics. Passed down from parent to child for generations, the only for of English available to the African Americans. Oh sure, there were those who rose above those bonds, but only a select few. Ebonics became their communal language, not by choice, but by necessity. 

Fast forward to the present day. While racism does still endure in this otherwise fine country of ours, it is no longer sanctioned by the government. African Americans and people of all colours and faiths can attend the same schools. No restrictions. The knowledge available to the White Man is now available to the Black man. so the question becomes: What to do with Ebonics? Well, if one were to trace it back to its source one would understand that it in fact stems from the very mistreatment and racism that the Civil Rights Movement fought so hard to crush. One would assume that a race, once suppressed and oppressed, would desperately grab at every opportunity previously denied them. One would assume that the degraded and terribly simple pidgin of a language known as Ebonics would be the first think to go, but no. Instead it is declared a dialect of the English language.

I don’t think you fully understand the ramifications of that ruling. A dialect cannot be corrected in school. Sure, a teacher can correct it on a written assignment, but as the spoken word, the teacher cannot correct a student’s use of Ebonics. Do you see the problem? This is self imposed stupidity! Now, the argument is basically that its become a cultural remnant that is to be remembered rather than disposed of, but seriously? Can anyone look me dead in the eye and tell me with a straight face that there is any benefit whatsoever to keeping Ebonics alive? A horrible transmogrification of an otherwise beautiful language, being allowed to once again rear its ugly head! Perhaps I am being a bit melodramatic, but by virtue of this very blog’s existence you all should know that I am just a wee bit passionate about the English language. I view the endurance of Ebonics as a crime against humanity. As a disease to be made extinct. As a Dalek to be exterminated.

Why the long rant? Because it is society’s pervasive acceptance of stupidity which breeds the very stupidity and ignorance that so many others fight so hard to eradicate. When Sarah Palin uses a word like “refudiate” she should not be coddled to the point where her ignorance is showcased in the world’s foremost lexicographical record, rather it should be mocked and criticized until the purveyor of said ignorance publicly apologizes for its dissemination!

Why am I worked up into such a lather about this subject, you ask? Because yesterday on the radio, I had the misfortune of hearing Jason Materra use the unfortunate (and wildly incorrect) word “monumentous.” If you are wondering why I labeled that word “incorrect” please get the hell off my blog. The word is either “monumental” or “momentous,” not “monumentous.” Even spell-checker knows that! But it is precisely because of the aforementioned complacency on the part of society which allows for such ignorance to go largely unnoticed by the majority of Americans.

Take, for example, such notable contractions as “ginormous” or “glamtastic.” Those words are used quite often in the mainstream media, and it sends a terrible message. We can debate the evolution of language all anybody wants, but I refuse to concede that this is an evolution of the English language. No. This is a disgusting, twisted mutation of the English language, which inevitably leads to further degradation of the language by others who view previous allowances as license for the future. Please, I beg you, help stop the ignorance before it’s too late! 

Let’s just sit back and reflect on the proper pronunciation of that word. I would even go so far as to say that meditation on the phonetics of that word should be required by law for at least one hour a day. From the Oxford Dictionary: Pronunciation: ˈn(y)o͞oklēər, -kli(ə)r.

Note the clear difference in pronunciation between the aforementioned “ˈn(y)o͞oklēər, -kli(ə)r” and the incorrect “/ˈnjuːkjələr/.” Now I know I’m kind of beating a dead horse with this post, but it’s quite relevant for me seeing as I was recently re-watching the “24” series, and i was reminded of the sad fact that Jack Bauer is incapable of pronouncing “nuclear” properly.

Do you have any idea what the budget for that show was? No? I’ll tell you. Season 1 ran 24 episodes, as did the subsequent seasons aside from season 7 which had an extended prequel. The budget for season 1 was an estimated $35,000,000. Anyone who has ever watched that show would understand where all the money went. I mean, exploding cars don’t just pay for themselves, now do they. So why could they not afford the price it would cost to have Kiefer Sutherland pronounce “nuclear” as it should be pronounced, rather than it’s metathetic equivalent? Perhaps THAT’S when they ran out of funding…

just cuz i dont know who from whom and youre from your does NOT give you an excuse to eff up your grammar. i hold yall to a higher standard. and you are a constant source of disappointment here are some examples (sorry…needed some grammatical errors :D)