Editorial — Proper use of the language probably isn’t gonna happen
WEDNESDAY EDITORIAL — Television broadcasters like to do commercials in which they talk about serving the community and getting the real story. Talking to real folks, going to neighbourhoods, saying it like it is.
But if they truly wanted to do something good for society, they’d stop saying ‘gonna.’ Listen to any TV personality, or radio for that matter, and it won’t be more than a sentence or two before you hear that somebody is gonna do something or something is gonna happen.
It would never be written into a script that way. On paper, it would say, “Mr. Smith said he’s going to investigate the matter fully.” Somehow, this becomes, “Mr. Smith said he’s gonna investigate the matter fully.”
We have a habit, in normal conversation, of mangling the English language with abbreviations. “Are we gonna go for coffee?” “Are gonna get the car fixed?” “I’m gonna take out the garbage.”
But do we need to do it on air, too? Couldn’t we reserve the dissemination of news for the proper use of language? Nobody is grammatically perfect. How often do you hear, “Me and him went to the movie,” or “It’s for you and I”? But maybe TV newscasts could become a place where the language is protected, spoken as it was meant to be spoken.
It’s probably not gonna happen, but one can always hope.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
My personal favourite is “anyways”.
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During my thirty-five years of teaching English at all levels from grade eight to first year college, I regularly targeted the differences between the various usage levels and the confusion resulting from mixing them. The short-cuts of speech (gonna), for example, have no place in written work, and the facility of slang has no place in logical discourse.
Easy writing is bad reading.
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I would just like to add that I find it extremely irritating that no one says “to” anymore….it’s “ta”. Is that a new word. Drives me crazy.
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Please review your Cole’s notes on “newspeak” and “doublespeak “, loss of hope could be traced to over-exposure of Steve TV {24/7}or Pamela Martin fluff .PS Protection of TV content will be addressed in the next omnibus bill .
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Our language is such a mangled tangled mess because of it’s long semi directionless evolution that the term “Proper English” may not be an accurate term. However lazy speech is just that. “Gonna” is just irritating. The same with the word “wash” when pronounced as “warsh”
My pet peeve is that we are somewhat slaves to our language, rather than masters of it. Why can we not begin a deliberate move to change the more idiotic dogmatic spellings of some of the languages words?
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Hi Mel, I understand what you have written in this editorial. One issue that really bothers me is the sensationalising of topics. Have you noticed that we have never had a forest fire since 2003? They are all wildfires now! Rick
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I wish they would stop saying “um”, as well. Are we, um, gonna go for coffee?
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