this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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Is there a version of this with proper English? It doesn’t help the plight of the labourer to speak so poorly
What doesn’t help the plight of the labourer is being an elitist pedant.
The message is perfectly clear.
There’s a double negative, it isn’t perfectly clear. Why write incorrectly when you can just as easily so don’t light a grill.
Being correct isn’t elitist
Language elitists about me more than most, especially English ones considering the massive mutt that the English language is. There is no proper English just what some think is proper because they have nothing else.
There is no "proper" English, there are only various versions of the original. If you really want to nitpick, American English stayed "truer" to the original English because of various reasons while the British version diverged more over the 18th-19th centuries.
Or in a shorter form, adding a 'u' to make some words sound more...French...is just silly.
just come out and say "with white English" and stop beating around the bush
You thought real hard about how you could use one sentence to let everyone know how white you are.
Congratulations, you've sufficiently annoyed me enough to log in to my local instances to type this out.
There is no ”one” way to speak and write English — we don't have an """official""" institute of our language like Spanish or French does (and even if we did, they would not have a monopoly on English). We don't speak in Received Pronunciation or keep the superfluous 'u' next to every 'o.'
Like every language, English has multiple dialects with their own vocabulary, and even some with their own specific grammar. The sentence in the OP was likely written in one of them - African-American Vernacular English. This dialect codifies double negatives, the habitual be, and words like 'finna.' Many of its aspects are already integrated into 'standard' American English.
This is part of the process of language in general. Many of the rules in 'proper form' come from shorthand, slang, and and crude versions of other languages and forms. Being aware of the rules shifting and changing as people shift and change how they speak will probably get you further than turning your nose up at rules you don't recognize.
Double negatives are wrong in all dialects, they could and should have said don’t light A grill. This isn’t difficult.
Oh no you logged in, it's getting real now. 🙄
There's certainly no "one right way", but there also a basis of effective communication. This is context specific.
In this case, the meme obviously reached the target audience and the commenter saying it was unintelligible is wrong.
The tyranny of small differences
It's text on a background. If you can't manage that on your own and share it instead, maybe try not criticizing others prior to asking for favors or favours since you seem to lean that way on your spelling. The post likely helps more than your whining at the very least. Plus your comments are filled with poor grammar. Not sure why you're feeling secure in your throwing stones while living in that glass house.
Beyond this, language isn't moved by what's in a dictionary. Language changes and evolves on its own into "slang," slang being memed by people until it becomes a well known and popular term.
I consider myself to write fairly well, but I also know the absolute strength of language that is imperfect in spreading a message. Some of the memes that gain the most traction are the ones that sound the most "street" as opposed to "academia."
Ignoring this and acting above it is just gatekeeping and elitism.
I had to read it a half dozen times to figure out what it meant. My favorite thought before I realized the use of the double negative was superfluous:
"What's a no grill?"
I guess the Rolling Stones should have their top hits rescinded for double negatives then? It can't be a top hit, it has bad grammar!
Should we rewrite "I can't get no satisfaction" as "I cannot get satisfaction" to remove the double negative and the contraction?
What even is this nonsense. You must be fun at parties.