My mama had a shirt that my sister Jen gave her (I think), which touts the importance of grammar. (I use grammer at certain times to show my ignorance). The shirt read, “Let’s eat grandma. Let’s eat, grandma.” I always thought it captured part of her essence as a nana. There are two reasons for this: 1.) She was an expert on grammar, and B.) She was one helluva cook. I thank God every day that I got to live under her roof in the latter years of her life, I got to know part of her wisdom and eat her cooking – it is one of several reasons I am overweight even now. I don’t want to try to cover grammar completely as this post would be 594859603335479 words long. Rather, I want to focus on the ones most AND least important to me (vocabulary, dialect, and punctuation).
Vocabulary is such a complicated thing. Each of us is unique, and each of us has a different vocabulary. It is affected and effected (see what I did there) by many factors – where one grew up, one’s intelligence, both early/late exposure to the right (good) books, genetics (DNA) and how one is wired, etc. I could mention many more, but I believe you see my point. Most politicians today speak on a 4th grade level (it varies of course), but they do it for a specific reason — our (as American) ignorance (google it) and from being dumbed down intentionally. That alone makes me very sad and sick folks. As I have said before, I am very fortunate to have grown up in a family of teachers. I was also blessed to have a mama who loved words, and language. I had great English teachers throughout my edumication – Mrs. Linda McMullan in Grammar school, and Mrs. Janet Schwartz in High School (Mrs. Schwartz also taught me Spanish and introduced me to Kipling’s poem “If”…) along with my sweet, wise mama. The rules of grammar change over time, however. Books, magazines, etc., are full of things like run-on and fragmented sentences, missspelt words, and improper capitalization. I don’t wanna be the grammar police however. Quite the contrary. Instead, I would prefer to encourage the reader to think this way; if one understands the *meaning* of what another person wrote, ignore grammar mistakes. Language changes over time as well. Consider this: the reason some (British) English and (American) English words’ spelling differ can be traced back to a POTUS’ executive order, American authors, titans of industry, Melvile Dewey (of Dewey Decimal System fame), et al. Consider aeroplane vs airplane, grey vs gray, honor vs honour as a few examples.
https://www.history.com/news/theodore-roosevelt-spelling-controversy
Now THAT’S a great use of an executive order IMHO. We learn language through different methods including ways that include dialect. We have Phonics (Hooked on Phonics), Ebonics, and a method I refer to as Redonics. They need to put the word “redonics” in the dictionary. It captures the essence of language in the American South. I think Jeff Foxworthy would be qualified to create the Redonic Dictionary. On the subject of dictionaries — I now have my mama’s ooold dictionary and the Bible she STUDIED. Just how important are they to me? Alan Alda”s character on *M*A*S*H (Hawkeye Pierce) once said,” I would only take the dictionary with me. I figure all the other books are in it already anyway”.
Did you know the emoji everyone loves to use began with Japanese writing? Emoji were “borrowed from Japanese, literally, “pictograph,” from e “picture, drawing” + moji“letter, character””.
Did you also know that besides the languages of the Far East (Japanese, Chinese), English (British or American) is the hardest language to learn? Different spellings, rules for verbs, and multiple uses (definitions) of words can be quite confusing —and frustrating. ¿In Spanish, questions always begin with a “upside down question mark”. That way you don’t have to reread the question. We have obviously forgotten the Keep It Simple Stupid mantra. Mama told me, in her latter years, that teachers were banned from grading papers with a “red” pen, because it was psychologically damaging and upsetting for the kids…. Wait, what? If you scored 100 on the test, how is it damaging to see that big red 100 on your paper. Oh, but I see. If one made a 50 on the test, that red would point out my mistakes. However, wouldn’t it be the same with any other color? I am missing something. Jesus was a teacher, and his words in the Bible are in blood red, therefore it logically follows that a teacher’s pen should be “red”, right? Then mama really blew my mind. Some, not all, modern Bibles do NOT have his words in red.
In spoken language, there is nothing more beautiful to my ear than the Southern U.S. dialects – from the long a’s in northeastern North Carolina and Virginia (as Jim says), to the Cajun twang in the Louisiana swamps. Texas is its own dialect as well, though north Texas and south Texas sound different. (I do love to hear British and Australian – though Australian is missing an “i”. maybe “trail” instead of “tral”. Again, I believe they have the right to spell it how they want, cause it is theirs alone. I just misspell it often. LOL). I was also frustrated at the spelling of “superseded” in the dictionary, regardless of dialect. This is the word “cede”‘s definition.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cede
Where did the “c” go in superseded? I guess “C” was “superCeded. See what I mean about the confusion? Therefore, (since I am now the grammar and spelling cop), Jody’s law goes something like this: spelling, punctuation, and pronunciation belong to the WRITER, not the READER. As long as the reader gets the point of the writer, there are no rules. That way, one isn’t constantly searching out mistakes, being in the proverbial box, and missing the point of the writer. Take this quote from Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. This is from “Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn”. It is from “Jim”, the African American man in the story. Twain is trying to put the reader in a first person view of the scene – almost as “Jim” is speaking directly to the reader.
“Well, it’s a blame ridicklous way, en I doan’ want to hear no mo ’bout it. Dey ain’ no sense in it.”
Twain, and a lot of other writers have operated this way. I will end this post with a couple of things out of Texas – I left it till last on purpose. The first is from Ray Wylie Hubbard – an Okie who has made a name for himself in the Texas music scene. Ray Is probably one of the wisest people I know who makes music. He gained that wisdom the hard way too. But Ray opened my eyes to several things. One being this: don’t let anyone put you in their box. His autobiography, to me, is an incredible piece of literature. But Ray uses almost no punctuation and/or capital letters in the book. It is HIS book and HIS story and he uses that creative or poetic license to enhance the reader’s view on his uniqueness. And I love every grammar mistake in it.
The last is an article/podcast from Texas Monthly on pecans. Read the article, listen to the podcast if you are interested. But when you finish, find the comment section. I was second to post a comment (I think?) Anyhow, it will tell you my thoughts on the subject. Never forget that God made each of us unique, and each of us has a purpose. I sure will be glad when He shows me what mine is. I have spun my wheels so much that the tires, rim, wheels, and brakes will have to be replaced. Sorry this post was so long.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/podcast/six-ways-say-pecan-one-thats-right/
Grammar police beware… The rules of the game are a changin as the times; so says the Nobel prize winner for Literature.
Oh yeah, one final thing on punctuation… Them 3 dots at the end of a sentence are called an ellipsis. Most writers use it to take passages out, or imply they have more to say. Tis why I always TRY to end with one…