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Originally Posted by freddie
[dialects and slangs] make it richer and more diverse rather than endanger it. No modern language in existance that has at least 1 milion active native speakers and has clear grammar rules can be considered as threatened in the first place, let alone threatened by dialects. All the various slangs and accents that stem from the basic english language are just a testiment of how popular and accepted the language is.
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no one said they endanger it. but dialects and slangs are two different things. dialects are almost impossible to be formed today, precisely because main languages are so well spread and accepted. slangs, on the other hand, are ignorant versions of the main language for the most part. i don't see them enriching the language in ANY way. neologisms enrich it, new morphological derivates enrich it, but not slangs such as ebonics, ffs! and, again, it's not a matter of endagering the english language (except to maybe those poor black children who are being taught to speak only ebonics by their ignorant drop out parents). it's a matter of a whole country - and i'm referring here to usa - praising this sort of butchered language (which is nothing more than the result of the lack of education). it only takes looking at the american music charts: 50 cent and all his 'homies' rule them. it's outrageous. and to think that music is considered to be art. mumbling grammatically incorrect english over the same rhythmic beats is very far from art. but it's not poor 50 cent's fault. he only does what he knows and what he was taught. it's the people's fault for buying his cd's and praising ignorance. and this in the age when human intelligence is supposed to be at its peak, what with the access to information and education. still, we're singing praises to forms of sheer stupidity. nice. and don't think i'm only referring to hip hop and americans. we have the same phenomenon here: the afore mentioned so-called gypsy 'music' (with the language errors it entails) is the most popular. i fail to understand why.