When I was growing up, people used to criticize people for using improper English. Actually, the term is Standard English. And for the past twenty years, I have been very skeptical of it. I say, the only purpose of language is to be understood. That's it. Though my 8th grade teacher said, when you use your own dialect, people may not understand, because they don't even know what those words mean. Pronunciation can make a big difference too. That is what they say the biggest problem is between British and American English. Also, history comes into play, the rules of your teacher for your essays. Also, I learned in HS typing class, there are typing rules. Contractions are not acceptable in typing. Though they are standard English. Shakespeare used them all the time. Also, what dialect you speak can influence what you think is standard English, when it is not. For example if person in the US spoke Midwestern dialect and said: It is me. and an African American said: I ain't. in an essay, for example, even most African American teachers would think the first is standard English and the second is non-standard. Actually "I ain't" is correct and historic, although it sounds terrible. "It is me" is still not considered Standard by most grammarians. The standard form is still "It is I".
Regional patters of speech are interesting. Many people in places mostly in the south, seemingly cannot say the word: saw. It's usually : I seen . Applies through all conjugations : we seen, they seen, etc.
The most poetic use of the English language is in Wales. What could be better than a novel written by Dylan Thomas, read by Richard Burton. Correct English, over here is often seen as the BBC news, but that has even been compromised lately by our nanny state laws of representing people from all over the world. Perhaps the best UK newsreader was Alvarda Dell, who presented the news during WW2. If you listen to this reproduced in modern films, you may even be listening to me.
As I said above, "ain't" is the correct form of "I am". It definitely is. For everything else, like "is not" it's incorrect. But true, it's not used anymore and sounds terrible. (It is US English too, BTW.) The only thing I am not sure about is whether contractions are standard English. Shakespeare used them all the time. But he was using them for characters talking. My dictionary says that there is colloquial speech, and there is slang speech. Slang speech is considered nonstandard. But standard speakers use it all the time. Colloquial I am not sure of. My dictionary says that colloquial is standard, just less formal. I know my HS typing teacher said don't use contractions ever in typing. Which is stupid. Like splitting infinitives and ending a sentence with preposition, sometimes you have to. (Ending a sentence with a preposition is all right in UK English, but not US English for some reason.) I mean, in typing you always say "let's postpone our meeting". You'd never say "let us postpone our meeting". (Also, people follow grammar and other writing rules less closely since I learned typing.) Also, I read when I first posted about ain't, the terms colloquial and slang overlap. There's like a gray area between the two. Plus, to be blunt, people don't listen to the grammar experts anymore anyways. They just use what sounds right, or what is easier to use. The only purpose of language is to be understood, you know. No one ever uses it perfectly.
Those do my nut in. It should either be "we've seen" or 'we saw'. Plenty of grammatical faux pas nowadays. What bugs me isn't the people making them, though they should try harder, it's that teachers and others for whom wordsmithery is their stock in trade, don't do it correctly. News-readers, journalists, even blinkin' lawyers; their grammar can be shocking/woeful. I agree that the purpose is to be understood. That is precisely why grammar is so important. Even placing a comma in the wrong place, within a sentence, can transform the meaning to be something totally different. Other's which grate:- Would of - would've I done. - I did Me and him - he and I. Many more but they escape me at this moment.
Many years ago, Jane's younger sister asked me what I was doing and I explained that I was tuning a radio frequency oscillator. When Jane asked her what we had been talking about, somewhat confused she replied that I had been telling her about a man who eats donkeys while he is listening to the radio. In Irish donkeys are asail's.
Very similar to talking like a pirate, which of course has it's own holiday... look it up! "Talk Like A Pirate Day"
Where I come from the word saw sounded like sore. So if you cut yourself with a saw, someone would say you had a "sore sore".
