Matthew Clapham
Feb 13, 2024

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Yeah, that will probably happen. You see it with English in international contexts - non-native usage becomes the norm through familiarity and repetition. I remember even 20 years ago a university friend of mine who went to work at the UK Finance Ministry and was involved in dealings with other EU governments saying that they would start using terms that were just copied from non-English languages, because everyone else just accepted them as standard, even though they weren't 'real' English. Once there's a critical mass of a 'non-standard' style of language, it becomes accepted and repeated, expectations are dumbed down, I think.

I need to write a short story about this. A kind of Planet of the Apes, with everyone having regressed to just grunting once language has become so debased.

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Matthew Clapham
Matthew Clapham

Written by Matthew Clapham

Professional translator by day. Writer of silly and serious stuff by night. Also by day, when I get fed up of tedious translations. Founder of Iberospherical.

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