Perfecting our communication
HAS Ben Lowry (February 9) the perfect solution for our imperfect MLAs?
Many years ago I was told that the best use of English language was spoken in Dublin, so in a general sense is it reasonable to conclude that the correct use of written English also hails from the Dublin press, being matched by Ben Lowry (and others) in the Northern Ireland press?
Recalling a business meeting in Dublin; I endeavoured to make my point which of course made perfectly good (correct) sense to me. Unfortunately, and naturally, I had lapsed into a few ‘Ulsterisms’. After the meeting concluded, the chairman who was required to sign off the minutes needed assistance to translate my spoken word into written form. I never made the same mistake again!
There are numerous words and phrases used in Northern Ireland that others, further afield, might need an interpreter for. A word frequently used is ‘sleekit’. This is not slang but a Scots word, translated into English meaning ‘crafty’ or ‘sly’. Perhaps Mr Lowry in some future article might consider and be tempted to use the word ‘sleekit’ in describing some Scottish politician whose name may spring to mind.
Very few of us write the way we speak. Which or what comes first, the spoken word as we learn as children or the written word as we are taught in school, and consequently the conflict of communication begins.
Hopefully my above grammar, punctuation, spelling, syntax and without split infinitives, collectively ‘is’ correct, or, ‘are’ collectively correct. I doubt it. Who should I blame? - my parents or school teachers or to be perfectly correct – my own inadequacies. If I listen long enough to our local politicians, I may be in a position to put the blame on them!
MW Woods
Bangor
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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