1
00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:11,200
Probsolutely not.

2
00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:13,280
No, the pressure isn't getting to me
already.

3
00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:18,160
You heard me correctly, Probsolutely,
a hybrid of probably and absolutely,

4
00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:22,600
which means definitely
maybe just one of the linguistic mash ups

5
00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:25,600
which are filtering into the English
language, demonstrating its

6
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continuing ability to dynamically evolve.

7
00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:33,200
Ten years ago,
the word chav, was first propelled

8
00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:37,680
into the spotlight soon to be joined
by an accompanying and not always welcome

9
00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,240
family of new terms such as chavvy,

10
00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:44,000
chavtastic and even chaff chic.

11
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So what will casual chit
chat look like in another ten years?

12
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Well, probsolutely isn't an anomaly.

13
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While bromances and labradoodles
have already made themselves at home

14
00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:56,200
in most people's vocabulary,

15
00:00:56,200 --> 00:01:00,840
there is a whole slew of other compounds
ready to hit a town near you, such as.

16
00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:02,800
Pifflicated.

17
00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:07,360
a useful description of the act
of being drunk and talking piffle.

18
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Or how about?

19
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Anticipointment,

20
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the disappointment of something
that had been eagerly anticipated.

21
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Hopefully not a term you'll be using
to describe this talk later.

22
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Another one
that I'm sure we can all relate to.

23
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Snaccident,
which refers to the inadvertent

24
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consumption of a whole pack of biscuits,
something that probsolutely happened

25
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in an effort to avoid feeling hungry,
a certain type of anger

26
00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:37,920
which can only be brought on
by insatiable hunger.

27
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It may be that you've never heard
of any of these words before, but

28
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chances are that you can at least hazard
a guess at their potential meaning.

29
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And no matter how objectionable,
you might find their sudden appearance

30
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in daily dialog,
it proves they are a success.

31
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Yes, it often happens to the most
undeserving of words

32
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with chav, a prime example, but happen
it does.

33
00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:04,880
Playwright Dennis Potter
once said the trouble with words is

34
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you never know whose mouth they've been

35
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in, which might be why we love to create
fresh ones.

36
00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:13,480
But it's not just the formation
of new words that plays a part

37
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in shaping this new look English language.

38
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If I said

39
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I was thirsty for you to find my snatched
look lit,

40
00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:25,920
some of you might wonder if I was more
than a little bit pifflicated.

41
00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:29,760
You understand the words,
but perhaps are not quite up to date

42
00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:31,440
with their current meanings.

43
00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:34,880
Thirsty is now a term
for the desperate quest for approval,

44
00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:40,800
while snatched means perfection and lit
is something amazing or drunk, depending

45
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:44,120
on whether your earlier snaccident
turned into more of an gincident.

46
00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:48,640
And it's not like this is the first time
the language has undergone

47
00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:54,280
a shift in the 16th century,
someone wrote God B W YE in a letter

48
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as an abbreviation for God, be with you.

49
00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:01,560
It's appeared as one word
which was read as goodbye.

50
00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:03,960
And that's why we now say goodbye.

51
00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:06,640
It all stems from 16th century chat speak.

52
00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:10,720
So while
words themselves are still undergoing

53
00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:14,200
major change, spelling and grammar
are also under attack.

54
00:03:14,920 --> 00:03:18,640
The recent news that the Apostrophe
Protection Society has decided

55
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it can no longer fight

56
00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,640
the good fight and closed its doors
will barely of registered to many.

57
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But it was a sad day for pedants
such as myself.

58
00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:29,800
Retired journalist
John Richards from Boston

59
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bravely fought an 18 year battle
against apostrophe abuse.

60
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But sadly, he could go on no more.

61
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Announcing the closure as a victory
for Barbarians, he said despite

62
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doing his best, the ignorance and laziness
present in modern times have won.

63
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John first found fame in 2001

64
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when he began posting polite notices
through the letterboxes of

65
00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:57,880
the worst offenders during their attention
to their incorrect apostrophe use.

66
00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:02,160
It wasn't all bad, though he did find
some success at his local library

67
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when staff finally removed
the incorrect apostrophe in the CD sign.

68
00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:10,120
So in an era dominated by

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00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:13,720
climate crisis,
financial meltdown and cyber attacks,

70
00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:17,320
not to mention the increasing
likelihood of World War three,

71
00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:20,880
is language something worth
getting so worked up about?

72
00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:24,640
Well, the plain English campaign
and the Queen's English

73
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society are still on the go,
and they certainly believe so.

74
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The former, which have been fighting
for crystal clear communication

75
00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:37,800
since 1979, speak of a worrying
trend of adults mimicking teen speak,

76
00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:42,520
using slang words and ignoring grammar,
while the latter have concerns

77
00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:46,200
that communication is at risk of becoming
far less effective.

78
00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:50,360
Despite pointing out they do not believe
language can be preserved unchanged.

79
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They say that some changes
would be wholly unacceptable as they would

80
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cause confusion and the language
would lose shades of meaning.

81
00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:02,280
Meanwhile, in Cambridge,

82
00:05:02,280 --> 00:05:07,160
a council decision to ban apostrophes
on street signs was overturned after local

83
00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:11,080
pedants took it upon themselves to start
adding them on in permanent marker.

84
00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:15,120
Apparently, the local authority
was following national guidelines

85
00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:18,440
that claimed punctuation
could confuse emergency services.

86
00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:21,800
However, they failed
to appreciate the strength of feeling

87
00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:25,440
among the opposing group
of self-declared defenders of grammar,

88
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and the decision was eventually reversed.

89
00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:33,400
But at the same time,
grammar can be difficult to defend

90
00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:34,640
when our language

91
00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:38,360
is one of the most confusing and seemingly
ill thought out on the planet.

92
00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:43,320
The following sentence is the perfect
example while English can be weird.

93
00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:47,400
It can be understood
through tough, thorough thought, though

94
00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:52,680
it uses five words
which all contain the OUGH configuration.

95
00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:55,840
Yet they are all pronounced differently.

96
00:05:55,840 --> 00:05:59,720
Or how about the word ananas,
which is the same in 23

97
00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:06,000
different languages, including Danish,
Esperanto, Hebrew, Persian and Hindi.

98
00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:09,760
Yet an English is inexplicably pineapple.

99
00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:12,920
So should we be embracing the

100
00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:15,560
inevitable change
sweeping through the English language?

101
00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:19,320
Well, the alternative

102
00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:23,080
is to spend my life fighting
against the tide, celebrating small

103
00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:26,880
victories, against common usage errors
and spending my retirement,

104
00:06:26,880 --> 00:06:30,000
sending apostrophe hate mail
to unsuspecting abusers.

105
00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:33,440
With that in mind,
my answer has to be probsolutely,

106
00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:34,960
Thank you.