Odd use of verb 'to see'.

[yelnats]

In the meantime, we seem to have acquired a lovely new word downunder.  "IMPORDANT".  Almost everyone, including the newsreaders, are saying it.

You seem to have missed "thirdy, fordy, fifdy, sixdy, sevendy, eighdy, and ninedy" amongst many others. Tweny often doesn't even get the d.

[mkenuk]

Brung is incorrect ("non-standard") .

In addition to the past participle 'brung', there is also the preterite form 'brang'.
Dialect and non-standard certainly,  probably not common, but not necessarily incorrect.

A line from an old Neil Diamond song from many years ago had been running half-remembered through my head since reading this post.
I finally tracked it down.

'A song she sang to me,
Songs she brang to me
Words that rang in me
Rhymes that sprang from me .......'

('Play Me' by Neil Diamond)

[Dragonman]

Love Neil Diamond...that was one of his most melodic songs.

[a non-amos]

So many comments, so little time.

In the case of Neil Diamond, we should grant him a generous measure of poetic license.  The need for alliteration does not imply illiteracy.

I am not yet convinced that forumites write more properly than they speak. It might equally well be true that forumites speak better.

Many, many thanks to Calilasseia for her learned discourse on ancient Greek.  This is one of the many reasons I value the forum so highly.  Very sorry that you are sometimes confused by the lack of the verb "to be" in a sentence.  Had to chuckle while writing that last one.

On the whole, I agree with RM's observation that word misuse is more common in rural areas and in the south.

On a more important note, I have noticed the lack of a resounding thrashing by RM and RF in the daily puzzles.  Are you OK?  We miss you!

[rogue_mother]

On a more important note, I have noticed the lack of a resounding thrashing by RM and RF in the daily puzzles.  Are you OK?  We miss you!

A, I'm around and well! You are so kind to have noticed that I have been absent from the upper reaches of the scoreboard a few times. I do play every day. In the past 18 months I have missed only two games, both of them Challenge puzzles. If I am failing to thrash you, it is only because I have temporarily joined in the game variant that a few of the players participate in, which is to achieve a rosette while entering only common words. I do this only occasionally, however, since my ability to get a rosette seldom matches theirs. Once it becomes apparent that I will not easily get a rosette, I return to my usual game, which is to get as many words as possible. Perhaps my presence is less visible since I have stopped doing the ten minute speed test. I stopped doing that because most of the time I am now playing on my cell phone, which does not lend itself to rapid word entry. Moreover, there's no denying that the addition of the 7-by-many puzzle has led to a small but noticeable drop off in my statistics for the other games. That's where I now spend most of my Chihuahua time and energy, both in the daily 7-by-many and in Your Puzzles. Otherwise I am found out and about playing Pokémon Go.

RF is doing well. He only ever plays the Standard game, and that's not every day. Whatever he gets in fifteen minutes is it for him. He has never been an over-achiever like me. His life has been taken over by Everquest -- an online multiplayer role playing game from the 1990s. I trust that things are going well in your neck of the woods. I always think of you with respect and admiration when I see your posts in the forum and wish we lived closer so that RF and I could just nip down to the pub to hear you play.

[a non-amos]

Glad to hear that you are both doing well.

What's this about a 10 minute speed test?  Very interesting.  My lovely bride and I typically spend about 10 minutes on the puzzle.  Puzzle time is always in short supply.

These days I've been spending too much time at work but have also done some berry picking.  This year there was a bumper crop of wild raspberries, probably due to the unusual rainfall and moderate temperatures in May and June.

Really, if there is food that good waiting to be picked?  You think I might take advantage of this, and maybe cook something interesting for a few friends who need more food?  Surely you jest!  There might have been some wild raspberry muffins involved.   

[Calilasseia]

Another weird one that’s definitely down to ignorance is the use of the ‘verb’ “to of”. ‘Could of’, ‘would of’, ‘should of’. Extremely common here, and probably elsewhere. I know it’s down to people hearing the contractions of those phrases (could’ve etc.) and assuming someone is saying ‘could of’ but if you try and explain that there’s no such verb as “to of” they don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.

Ah yes, the failure to distinguish between "have" (the auxiliary verb" and "of" (the preposition). I find this one irritating too.

Makes you wonder what horrors some of the modern "txt spk" generation would have inflicted upon a language such as Greek.

[Valerie]

Couldn't agree more.  I'm also starting to loathe the word "like".  Like, when people are, like, trying to say something, like maybe something important, they can't help but, like, fill the sentence with the word "like".  It seems to have taken over from "y'know".  And, talking about something "important", I've noticed that people, including news correspondents, especially downunder, have started saying "impordant".  What is happening with the world?

[pat]

One word we’ve heard far, far too much in the last three years, over here in the UK, is Brexit. Some newsreaders insist on pronouncing it Breggzit, which for some reason really irritates me.

[mkenuk]

Ever the optimist, I'm still not sure that Brexit will happen.

However if Boris the Blimp does get his way, I don't think it will be too long - perhaps a matter of weeks - before Breentry has replaced Brexit as the 'word of the hour'

[pat]

I think it inevitable that the 160,000 people who've had the privilege of choosing the next prime minister on behalf of the entire country will have been stupid enough to have elected Johnson. My hope is that his turns out to be the shortest premiership ever. Hard to believe that it's just three short years since the unholy triad of Brexit, Trump and Johnson seemed laughably ridiculous.