Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id JAA20613 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 17 Nov 2000 09:08:01 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745B18@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: FW: NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 09:06:04 -0000 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
There was a similar occurance recently with the 'honour virus' joke.
I've already been passed another, more detailed version of the revocation
joke as well (adding, for example, an instruction for Americans to check the
spelling of aluminium against their pronunciation of it).
Quite aside from the interest of this kind of e-mail equivalent of chinese
whispers, it got me thinking about pronunciation as being memetic,
particularly out of this joke.
After all where and when did Americans start mispronouncing (and let's be
clear about it, despite the jokes it is a mispronunciation) aluminium as
"aluminum"?
I recently saw a newspaper article that suggested that there were more
people who spoke English as a second language than spoke it as a first
language, and as such, the kind of English spoken by these people- with
their native accents influencing pronunciation was likely to have more
influence on the development of the language. Certainly in my teaching of
masters' degree students from places such as India, Malaysia, Hong Kong and
so on, where English is a formal language of business, their spoken (and
written) English in comprehendable if rarely grammatically correct. So,
this suggests that pronunciation is a crucial factor- but what makes one way
of saying a word or phrase take hold within a population? This, IMHO, is a
memetic question.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Nathan
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 8:42 pm
> To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
> Subject: Re: FW: NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE
>
>
> On Wed, 15 Nov 2000, Vincent Campbell wrote:
> > I'm sorry everyone, but I couldn't resist passing on this joke a friend
> > sent me (with profound apologies to our American colleagues).
> <snip>
>
> Thank you for the forward.
>
> I find the behavior of forwarded e-mail (chain letters, jokes,
> &c ) to be quite interesting; I would like to mention that I recieved that
> same forward three different times, all on the same day, and all from
> entirely different sources.
>
> Your apologies are accepted. ;)
> - Nathan
>
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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