Is the English language being "dumbed down", and if so, why?

[All Along The Watchtower]

"Dumbed down" meaning, in this case, more informal, casual, and less strict or not held to a high standard.

Is this mostly an American phenomenon, or is it also happening in other English-speaking countries? What are your thoughts, theories, or observations as to why this is happening (if you agree that it is indeed happening)?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Think you'll find that people have been complaining about this for rather a long time.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Think you'll find that people have been complaining about this for rather a long time.

True.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The same debate is going on with French too.


I have mixed feelings about this.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Whilst a concern amongst some persons, but there be more important things to worry about.

[The Mikado]

RIP Þ thorn and ſ long s, casualties of English's dumbing down.    May you rest by Æ and Œ in peace.

[angus]

"Dumbed down" meaning, in this case, more informal, casual, and less strict or not held to a high standard.

Is this mostly an American phenomenon, or is it also happening in other English-speaking countries? What are your thoughts, theories, or observations as to why this is happening (if you agree that it is indeed happening)?

The fact that you cannot think of a better verb than "dumbed" to entitle a thread to describe the phenomenon of interest is ample evidence that it must be so.

Why?  Well, how hard would it be for you to think of a real word to describe it?  Or, if you cannot think of one, how hard would it be to look one up or learn one?  And why didn't you even bother to do just that?

If you can respond to these questions, then you will have the answer you seek.

[minionofmidas]

No Angus, that's verbing, not dumbing down. Verbing weirds language, dumbing down downdumbs it.

[dead0man]

Isn't this more of a "feature" of language than a real problem?

[Хahar 🤔]

Isn't this more of a "feature" of language than a real problem?

Exactly. As programmers say, it's not a bug; it's a feature.

[angus]

No Angus, that's verbing, not dumbing down. Verbing weirds language, dumbing down downdumbs it.

I regard promoting one-syllable adjectives to the status of verbs as another form of amelioration.  Not the worst form, as evidenced by many posts in this forum, but certainly one form.  

Still, one must accept the fact that languages evolve.  I had a long conversation with an English professor a few years ago about the way folks were pluralizing certain words in other ways that the way I was taught.  I've seen "indexes" for example, and "miminums."  She convinced me that evolution isn't necessarily a bad thing, and that growing pains are normal.  The only languages that don't experience them are the dead ones.

I suspect also that this language mitigation phenomenon is not unique to English, although given the language's wide geographic distribution and the attendant necessity that so many people (barely) learn it--and the fact that it's relatively new, as languages go, and that its current propagator is the same empire that was the cradle of fast food and the internet--the phenomenon may be more obvious in English than in other languages.  I say phenomenon, not problem, since I agree that features are not necessarily bugs, so to speak.

Take any foreigner who studied English long enough to speak it proficiently and plop him down in an English-speaking country and he'll forget how to speak English correctly in a very short time.  The recently-arrived Asian immigrant uttering "peace out, yo" and "damn, that's whack" is common enough fare in shallow Hollywood "summer" movies.  And that's art actually imitating life.

I've even gotten used to university administrators referring to the mentor/mentee relationship.

Mentee?  Really?!  

Okay, okay, I said I was over it.  I am.  Really.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Isn't this more of a "feature" of language than a real problem?

Exactly. As programmers say, it's not a bug; it's a feature.

     We should complain and get the designers to eliminate this feature in the next patch for American English.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I've even gotten used to university administrators referring to the mentor/mentee relationship.

Mentee?  Really?!

Yes.  Really.  One of the flaws of those who seek to inflict erudite English upon the rest of us is a weird insistence upon keeping certain words from being fully naturalized.  Granted, given its origin, mentee is a rank backformation, but if may ment you on this subject, I think doing so is a good thing.  If only we did the same thing with spellings.  Our insistence on keeping imported spellings knocks my spine out of alignment enough to make me want to see a kiropractor. Is that a good enough example of what I mean, or do I need to show you a fotograf?

[DemPGH]

I'm one of those people who believes that there's a time and place for everything. There's a time for formal speech and dialogue (so it helps to be able to use it if one is in a situation where it is demanded), a time for text abbreviations, and a time for slang and so forth. I think technology and an increase in informal exchanges has helped "dumb" it down, and it accompanies the general direction of culture - that is to become increasingly casual and informal. So speech follows. It's probably not good or bad, it just happens.

But could peoples' vocabularies generally be better? Sure. They, however, tend to learn and to use what they need to - the English language of course being quite vast and, yes, "living."

[Antonio the Sixth]

I've even gotten used to university administrators referring to the mentor/mentee relationship.

Mentee?  Really?!

Yes.  Really.  One of the flaws of those who seek to inflict erudite English upon the rest of us is a weird insistence upon keeping certain words from being fully naturalized.  Granted, given its origin, mentee is a rank backformation, but if may ment you on this subject, I think doing so is a good thing.  If only we did the same thing with spellings.  Our insistence on keeping imported spellings knocks my spine out of alignment enough to make me want to see a kiropractor. Is that a good enough example of what I mean, or do I need to show you a fotograf?

Now, I'm not exactly a linguistics purist, but that just makes me want to throw up.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I've even gotten used to university administrators referring to the mentor/mentee relationship.

Mentee?  Really?!

Yes.  Really.  One of the flaws of those who seek to inflict erudite English upon the rest of us is a weird insistence upon keeping certain words from being fully naturalized.  Granted, given its origin, mentee is a rank backformation, but if may ment you on this subject, I think doing so is a good thing.  If only we did the same thing with spellings.  Our insistence on keeping imported spellings knocks my spine out of alignment enough to make me want to see a kiropractor. Is that a good enough example of what I mean, or do I need to show you a fotograf?

Now, I'm not exactly a linguistics purist, but that just makes me want to throw up.

Can I encourage your purging by suggesting that an instance of menting could be called a mento?

[opebo]

I've dumbed my usage of it down tremendously in speaking to all these foreigners.

[angus]

I've even gotten used to university administrators referring to the mentor/mentee relationship.

Mentee?  Really?!

Yes.  Really.  One of the flaws of those who seek to inflict erudite English upon the rest of us is a weird insistence upon keeping certain words from being fully naturalized.  Granted, given its origin, mentee is a rank backformation, but if may ment you on this subject, I think doing so is a good thing.  If only we did the same thing with spellings.  Our insistence on keeping imported spellings knocks my spine out of alignment enough to make me want to see a kiropractor. Is that a good enough example of what I mean, or do I need to show you a fotograf?

You may ment, if you like, but that doesn't make me your mentee.  Is the one who sells the emptee?  No, he's the vendor.  You may also want to tell the new pope that he should replace that XP at the top of the vatican with a KR.  After all, the basilica isn't a version of Microsoft Windows.

If you don't like greek words for light+draw, then just say picture, as in "do I need to paint you a picture?"  If you don't like χέρι, the greek word for hand, then use one with a latin root:  manipulator.  "It is enough to make me want to have my spine manipulated."

The English language is a highly bastardized one and borrows from just about everyone else.  That makes it disorganized and illogical, but it also is rich in synonyms.  If a word that has its roots in Greek or Latin doesn't make you feel all warm and fuzzy, then pick one whose roots are German.  In English, you can be free, or take liberty.  

Need an alliteration?  There's always one to be found.  The local children's science museum is having an exhibit featuring coprolites.  They're calling it "Did Dinosaurs Poop?"  I ask you:  How stupid is that?  Nevermind the insult to your intelligence on a more fundamental level.  Just think of the missed opportunities for clever alliteration. They could have called it Digging Dino Dung, or Collecting Cretaceous Crap, or Mountains of Mesozoic Movements, or Finding Fossilized Feces.  What richness the language already possesses without us having to make up silly words like "poop" (and "mentee").

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

What richness the language already possesses without us having to make up silly words like "poop" (and "mentee").

  In that meaning "poop" is attested as far back to the mid 18th century and is believed to derive from the Middle English verb "poupen" meaning to make a toot when then got related to making farts and then the non-gaseous byproducts associated with that noise.

[minionofmidas]

If you want to Anglify that though, it's the Menter-Mented relationship. Mentee is (falsely applied and misspelled) French.

[ZuWo]

We are free to welcome or bemoan certain aspects of language change but it's essentially just like the weather: Languages change irrespective of our preferences and wishes.

[angus]

Mented

I've always thought exactly that as well.  If you really must, then try "mented" out for size.

Ernest, thanks for the poupen.  I hadn't looked that up before.

[HoosierPoliticalJunkie]

If someone turned in an essay for school in the style of Shakespeare, they would get tons of points taken off for lack of clarity, poor grammar, etc.

Everything is relative to the timeframe.

[The Mikado]

If someone turned in an essay for school in the style of Shakespeare, they would get tons of points taken off for lack of clarity, poor grammar, etc.

Everything is relative to the timeframe.

Screw Shakespeare, write an essay for school in the style of Chaucer.  With Chaucer's favorite subjects, of course.

I love old Geoffrey Chaucer. 

[Torie]

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They were probably lawyers, that ending up teaching in the Law School at whatever place you were at angus where this sort of thing occurred (that no doubt referred to itself as a "university" - is there such a thing as a "college" anywhere anymore on the Fruited Plain?), en route into moving into management.