This may seem a bit inconsequential to some of you, but I assure you this is a problem that desperately needs to be fixed. As you might be able to guess, I'm referring to blatant use of the term "two-thousand..." when stating the date - as in, 'two-thousand ten, two-thousand eleven, two-thousand twelve.' While it's true that, in this new century, the full number that represents the year isn't ten syllables long (Unlike one-thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine), we should still be mindful of the number of unnecessary syllables.
I was born in the early 90s, and like everyone born before the year 2000, I got used to shortening the year-date into two numbers - Nineteen and Ninety-five, or ninety-six or whatever (Of course, we never actually said the 'and' part). I remember thinking it was a bit strange, until I tried saying the year as one number - One thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-seven is WAY too much to say in one go. (However, in my French classes we were always taught to say the whole number, as if the French actually take the time to pronounce all that whenever they're giving the date. Still not sure if this is true.)
That's why the next decade was a bit strange, because there is no way to shorten two-thousand or two-thousand one (Unless you want to say 'twenty-zero' and 'twenty-oh-one', but that just sounds ridiculous). It didn't take extremely long to get used to however, and I think everyone will agree that we got pretty used to saying 'two-thousand nine' by the time it rolled around.
However, there's a serious problem with saying 'two-thousand ten'. If we get used to saying 'two-thousand ten', then we'll be saying 'two-thousand thirteen', and eventually 'two-thousand twenty' and 'two-thousand fifty-six' and so on. IT'LL NEVER END. Whatever we start with, we'll have to keep up, to keep face. Our kids, hearing us say 'two-thousand thirty', will say 'two-thousand sixty-four' to their kids, who'll say 'two-thousand ninety-three' to their kids, and a hundred years from now everyone will be saying 'two-thousand one-hundred eleven' like the FRENCH.
You may think this is ridiculous, that having experienced the twentieth century we'd never start saying the whole date out like that, but that's just the point - we wouldn't be! Who among us is going to be living for another hundred years? It'll be our kids, and our kids' kids, who, having heard our pronunciation their whole lives, wont think to revert back to the lesser-syllable version.
And I assure you, the lesser-syllable version is far superior. I love the English language, in part because it's open, always changing and shifting to make it easier for the speakers to communicate. That's why our non-living nouns don't have genders, it's why most people don't pronounce the 'h' in 'wh' words (even though the 'hw' pronunciation is technically more correct) and why we pronounce 'Colonel' as 'Kernul (Try saying 'Col-oh-nel' in a sentence a lot, and you'll see why the pronunciation changed over time. I'm personally against this one, however - I'll pronounce it the way it's spelled, thank you very much).
That's why we invented 'ten twenty' when 'a thousand and twenty' got to be too hard to say. We haven't had a reason to challenge the shorter pronunciation, which cuts down anywhere from 1-5 syllables from our speech, until now. 'Two-thousand ten' isn't far off from 'Twenty-ten', but it's enough to cut a syllable, and if you can cut anything out, and still keep the same meaning, then you're a winner.
Please, if you're one of those grammar nazies who insists on pronouncing everyone they was they did in during the Renaissance, do not procreate. Our language is evolving, changing, because people are still speaking it. That's how languages work. The responsibility of a fluent English speaker is to communicate as effectively as possible, and if that means cutting out sounds or syllables, creating portmanteaus, or adopting words from other languages, by all means (Just try not to slur your words - the point is to increase communication, not baby-babble).
This year is 'Twenty Eleven', and in a year it'll be 'Twenty Twelve', and the sooner we figure that out, the sooner we can focus on some more important problems facing us today.
1 comment:
I like the pronunciation of two thousand eleven, as it helps me get my thoughts together and it is different from the common pronunciation of years before 2000. Years pronounced with "two thousand" in the beginning remind many folks of how they used to look forward to the year 2000 and the future in general. Continuing the pronunciation is not only a natural progression from the old way, but an indication of what people want for this century and millennium.
I wish you had not typed these parts, as they gave me the idea of you being very rude:
"(Try saying 'Col-oh-nel' in a sentence a lot, and you'll see why the pronunciation changed over time. I'm personally against this once, however - I'll pronounce it the way it's spelled, thank you very much)."
"(Just try not to slur your words - the point is to increase communication, not baby-babble)"
In spite of what you typed in parenthesis, your post was very interesting. I just feel differently about how the current year should be pronounced. "Twenty-eleven" sounds too quick and it does not compare to the excitement of saying "two thousand eleven" or any year afterwards.
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