How Our Language Changes

Honestly, I have no idea. I notice changes all the time, but I'm clueless about from where they come ... or, where they come from. I couldn't pass that up. I'm of the generation that learned never to end a sentence with a preposition. That often became extremely awkward and I don't miss it at all. Actually, since I don't do any formal writing anymore, I don't know if it's still the preference there.

What started me on this line of thinking is listening to all the newscasters pronounce the capital city of Ukraine, "Keev," one syllable. On Sunday, I had the opportunity to ask someone who is not a native but speaks Ukrainian fluently what is correct. He said that the Russian pronunciation is Kiev, two syllables, the way we've always heard it. Ukrainians say Ki-eu, again, two syllables.

I did take a minute to check with Wikipedia and found that the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like it to be spelled "Kyiv," but still pronounced with two syllables. My guess is that someone fairly high on the news food chain saw that and decided it should be "Keev," and everyone jumped on the bandwagon. After all, no one wants to seem out of date. But these are reporters. Couldn't they take a minute to look this up?

There are changes that make sense to me. Comparable, for instance. The accent was always on the first syllable. For years now, I've heard it with the accent on the second syllable. Basically compare with "able" added to the end. As I said, that one makes sense, but it still jars my ears a bit. I always assumed that that person didn't pay much attention in school, but it's so common that something else must be going on.

Years ago I heard an interview with Ammon Shea, the author of a book titled, "Bad English." My takeaway was that by the time you've noticed the change being used, it's too late. The new way of saying or using a word has already become the new normal, as they way.  

I didn't try hard to learn all these rules. I suppose that my enjoyment of language made it easy. And my mother was a stickler for correct pronunciation and grammar, so anything I missed she filled in.

I try to be flexible, and I don't correct people, but among (three or more people) and between (two people) are not the same and it grates on my nerves when I hear them used interchangeably. The same goes for less (a vague amount) and fewer (countable)--sugar and sugar cubes, for example.

Since I've been around for quite a while, the list of these changes--or bad English, as I think of them--is long and getting longer daily.

I don't care about changes in fashion or hair styles, and what's considered correct behavior doesn't mean much to me--up to a point. But words? There has to be a limit somewhere. And that's mine.