Stop speaking garbage

Is it just me or have you noticed that we are being taken over by American sounds and language? Slowly but surely, Americanese is invading our lives from voices over television advertisements to the prostitution of the written and spoken word.

While, of course, English is a living language and must change with time, it is in mortal danger of becoming submerged beneath sloppy Americanese and SMS talk abbreviations leaving ‘pure’ English to the pens of poets - heaven forbid.

American and Australian languages both come from the same English roots and both countries have developed their own specialised words, accents, dialects and meanings, but Australia is in danger of being smothered by the language from America.

The way we speak may be similar and it was someone else who suggested that the greatest difference and the biggest divider between Australia and America is English. English is a vibrant enough communication medium and there is room for all branches of the language to develop independently without allowing it to submerge another branch. It is an insidious invasion and contamination.

One of the widest abuses is the habit today of placing the emphasis of a word on the first syllable.  Debris, adult, research, garage are common examples and there are many others.

We now talk about, and regretfully recognise, “homicide” instead of “murder”, “autopsy” instead of “post-mortem”, “witness stand” instead of “witness box”, “off limits” rather than “out of bounds”.

These examples of the invasion are only the tip of the iceberg. We talk about “stores” today rather than “shops” and “pharmacies” instead of “chemists”, and who today has heard of a grocer where supermarkets abound?

And then there are the long, impressive words that have taken over from the simpler ones. Cases in point include “hospitalisation” rather than being “in hospital”, “transportation” instead of “transport”, “affirmative” rather than “yes”, “medication” instead of “medicine”. Our language now is in danger of becoming pompous and we haven’t even mentioned the spelling of words such as “analogue”, “programme”, “colour”, “plough”, “harbour”, “sceptical”, “sulfate” rather than the traditional “sulphate”, “leverage” that has long lost its mechanical meaning and the many other words that have become infected. And then there are the words that have changed completely so that today we talk about “antenna” for “aerial” and “ground” for “earth”.

American-voiced television advertisements are so common that we accept them as the ‘norm’. Sometimes there is a token Australian voice-over but there are still TV channels blatantly devoted to promoting gadgets and equipment with voices straight out of the Bronx.  Perhaps the most frequent are the ads for cinema films often delivered in a breathless pseudo dramatic voice. However, the regular television channels have more than their share of breathless deliveries all in the interests of pseudo drama.

What about the long-held tradition of non-American pop singers who without exception adopt a phoney American accent for the lyrics - that is if you can follow the words at all as they try their best to swallow the microphone. Sadly, they follow a long line of copiers that goes back almost to the beginning of pop singing. What on earth is there in an Aussie accent to be ashamed of?

And while we’re banging on about language, we cannot blame the Americans for the obsession we have for being politically correct and traditionally incorrect. The depths to which we have sunk are absurd. Manholes, mankind and presumably manhandled are out and the word “person” replaces the “man”.  Even more ridiculous is the controller of a meeting who used to be called a chairman regardless of sex. Now it is the inelegant “chairperson” or, even worse, “chair”, which one assumes is good company for the table but when did a chair last run a meeting? Whatever happened to the dignified “madam chairman” or could this not be applied if the lady was unmarried?

As earlier mentioned, English is a living language and Australia is as much a part of that family as England, Canada, America or New Zealand. Let’s preserve our unique special words, phrases and expressions for the next generation and beyond, if nothing else for words such as “cobber”, “digger” and the old-fashioned “sheila”.