Quote:
Originally Posted by Fish
You forget, England has its own dialects and slang. While I agree with you on the southern dialect (and I have a southern twang myself), its only really bad if you actually aren't all that well educated. Otherwise its simply an accent with the word ya'll thrown in.
English in its current form has never been a 'high' language, mostly because its the bastard child of German and Latin. American English is just another dialect, similar to the Australian/NZ dialect.
On the topic of slang, though, that will change the language for the worst if it continues. That isn't a regional thing, or the natural evolution of a language. Its more of a laziness and stupidity that stems from people not caring to know their own damn language.
Edit: Yes, we've gone way off topic here.
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More like bastard child of Anglo-Saxon and French...but I don't really know what you mean by never having been a 'high' language here...that's a social phenomenon. England became quite powerful in the Middle Ages and has had a high prestige and a rich literary tradition since Old English (Beowulf), Middle English (Chaucer), etc.
BTW, apparently the "Lancashire" dialect of British English has historically had low prestige. I don't know what it sounds like myself.