I've seen the word drug used as the past tense of drag in several stories in BC, and it jars me everytime. I know that most (some) dictionaries list it as accepted as well as dragged, but in my area it is definitively s sign of lower educational achievement. It makes me think the character saying the words should be saying "youse guys" and "learnt" as a synonym for taught.
Just wanted to get that off my chest (feeble as it is).
Dawn
Comments
But
us dat was teens in da 60's got usta drugs n stuff
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
Obiligatory
If you can remember the 60's, you weren't there.
Well for some it was true. I can remember they day when I went up to london and bought my first dress.
Flower power at its worst
Summer '68. wore it to several music festivals that year and again in '69.
Regionally inflected speaking =/= lack of education,
and it certainly does not represent one's understanding of language.
I'll use drug at times versus dragged, just like I'll use the word youse (even in real life!,) ain't, betcha, etc. specifically because utilizing language in that way is a great, simple way of showing a bit of the personality of the character in question, as well as improving one's writing, not through grammatical exactitude or an understanding of syntax, but by bringing the flow of your work closer to the feel of natural speech.
Of all the languages in the world, there are few more adaptable or, indeed, more "alive" than English at the moment. We're constantly adding new words, changing definitions, expanding our ideas of what constitutes good, bad, or correct writing and speaking styles, and generally making the language a chaotic mess. This is a GOOD thing, because it's out of that chaotic mess that the language gets its drive to grow and continue changing, adapting to express new, exciting ideas and ways of thinking.
I believe it was a blog on here (maybe by Erin herself?) that showcased a drive by a small group of people to remove non-germanic influences from English. I've also seen discussions before of the drive to remove outside influences from other languages, like French. The one thing that those drives tend to share is a feeling that the resulting language is, in comparison to the broader, more culturally-rich integrated versions, stilted, archaic and typically harder to express many ideas in.
So, accept drug as a past-tense. Heck, open your mind to a whole world of dynamic language! It may be uncomfortable at first, but trust me, in the long run it's a great thing for communication in general.
Melanie E.
Historically, drag is a strong verb.
Historically, sneak and light were weak verbs.
In my dialect, sneak and light have become strong verbs.
I wince when people say "sneaked" or "lighted," instead of "snuck" or "lit," but it's not wrong for them to say "sneaked" or "lighted," and it's wrong for me to object.
English strong verbs use ablaut to indicate tense; weak verbs use endings such as -ed.
What's really funny
What's really funny about this is I got something today I've never gotten before: textspam for "5gm eighths" from a pharmacy which took me a moment to decipher. It's not quite legal yet in CA for dispensaries that have a medical marijuana license to sell marijuana to anyone over 21 but they are doing it and mostly getting away with it.
BTW, a real eighth is closer to 3.75 grams so that may be a good deal. Wonder what they are going for? Checked online, it's about $8-$10 a gram. Been more than thirty years since I was with anyone buying the stuff and that sounds kind of cheap. Five grams is about 4 to 8 reefers, depending on how you roll.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
one
Of my pet hates too - whilst I accept and even use similar 'popular speak' in my writing i"m of the opinion that it's use outside of such speech is a sign of poor education.
I see it often around me, a particular use locally to me is the learn/taught thing. It's not an age thing either. If I hear someone using 'learned me' they are without fail low academic achievers. It's very obvious when their peers use 'taught' and someone trying to at least appear to be better educated will always try to use 'proper' English. Just one example, but there are others.
So if I see 'drug' in speech I might not like it but I accept it as common use. When I see it in other text I see it as a sign of poor diction - I am pretty sure even in the USA you would be taught (not learned) that the past tense of drag is dragged, drug refers to some sort of chemical compound!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Much like ...
... lend/borrow. The confusion of using 'lend' when the verb 'borrow' is what is meant has been around for half a century or more. There are, as you said, many other examples.
I find that many who say 'let it be' are apparently contributing to the 'dumbing down' effect.
I shudder at the usage "They have went to the store."
But I am told that this usage is common in some area or another and thus must be accepted as 'proper' English.
I wonder when Textspeak will become considered as 'proper' English; 'u' for 'you' - '2' for any of 'two', 'to' or 'too' and so on.
But then modern scholars don't get a rap over the knuckles with a wooden ruler if they misuse words ...
Anyone who uses 'Text speak' to me
gets ignored.
I used to get this a lot when I worked in Russia.
If they carry on I simply say
Извините, я не говорят на вашем Кольской полуострова диалект. Вы можете говорить на английском языке?
Which roughly translates as
I am sorry that I do not speak your Kola Peninsular dialect. Can you speak English please?
If they persist
I say something which is almost unrepeatable and a very insulting phrase I learned from a former KGB Major. It mentions The Gulags.
Sadly the meaning is lost here but it seems to work though.
Most of these differences are
Most of these differences are normal dialect differences.
And prestige/high-status/high-status dialects aren't better or purer than other dialects. At least half the differences between prestige dialects and other dialects, excluding creoles from multiple source-languages, will be innovations in the prestige dialects, where older forms survive in the other dialects. Some traits of prestige/high-status writing, such as the shibboleth about so-called "split infinitives," create confusion for everyone.
See some of the posts here: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/index.php?s=infinitive
Dialects
If someone using "drug" instead of "dragged" bothers you, best stay away from Appalachia, we have a very distinct dialect that drives speakers of "proper" English to distraction.
Yeah
Hardly a month goes by that I'm not startled on finding out that a perfectly good bit of Ozark dialect is completely unknown to speakers of more general American. Ozarkese is the far-western edge of the same dialect group as Appalachian, based mostly on what was spoken by Scots-Irish immigrants in the early decades after the Revolution.
Just the other night I discovered a roomful of people who did not know the Ozark meaning of the word "hockey"!
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Hockey pucks...
we used to play Hockey of a sort when I was a kid, but the puck came from the end of a horse!
Yup
That's the only meaning of the word hockey I knew of until about the third grade. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
In Canada
In Canada we have that type of hockey here too. But at least we use frozen pucks.
Dawn
As for me
I will just leave this here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2017/02/13/poste...