First of all, that's not a "Z," it's a "Zed."
di·a·lect (d-lkt)
n.
1. a. A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists: Cockney is a dialect of English.
b. A variety of language that with other varieties constitutes a single language of which no single variety is standard: the dialects of Ancient Greek.
2. The language peculiar to the members of a group, especially in an occupation; jargon: the dialect of science.
3. The manner or style of expressing oneself in language or the arts.
4. A language considered as part of a larger family of languages or a linguistic branch. Not in scientific use: Spanish and French are Romance dialects.
Second, learning another language does not necessarily mean
learning another language.
I have been living outside of the US for over a year now, and before that I was in Boston, which may as well be another country anyway. I've noticed my own English start to change. Words like "Howzit" and "Just Now" have a completely different meaning. "Sarojini Nagar" and "Safdarjung" roll off my tongue as if I was born with them.
Living outside of the US, even if it is in another mostly-English speaking country requires you to learn new rules of grammar and spelling, too. It really is like learning another language, or at least re-learning English. I have officially been reformatted.
Lists now conclude without the final comma (ie apples, bananas, mangoes and oranges). Words that used to be the only ones to use the rarely-seen "Zed" have dropped it altogether for the more popular "S" (ie globalisation, realise and modernise). And the one that I still don't understand is the inconsistent inclusion of "me" (ie programme). I don't get this one because it isn't all the time. I mean, you don’t use "examme" or "mainstreamme." What's the deal with that.
When I started writing this report for my internship, I had to go back paragraph-by-paragraph and replace all the "programs" with "programmes." Now I do it without thinking about it. So, what's the programme?
Flown by mariposa at 08:50 AM on June 11, 2005
