The ups and ups of colloquial English

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I'm all for creativity, language evolution and individual expression, but until recently admittedly, intolerant of lazy usage and redundant words. Recognising that curmudgeonliness is a function of ageing, I am trying to reverse the trend by celebrating and enjoying the differences, often with some amusement (sorry). Take the word 'up'. Up next; next up; park up; listen up; shake up; call up; fill up; freeze up; up until; up for sale. Some are okay, and some are unnecessary and, it is claimed, are mostly imports from across the Atlantic. Remove every one of those 'ups', and the meanings remain the same. Someone once said “This is the sort of thing up with which I will not put”, attributed to several notable or notorious persons. Other non-redundant but interesting uses for 'up' include “Give it up” [for someone] as an exhortation to applaud, and even “upchuck” in a Guardian article about current cinema's seeming obsession with projectile vomiting. I hope that isn't anyone's response to this blog. An uptick would be preferred.

Since moving to Cymru, I have rarely heard anybody say "like", as in "I was like", when English is spoken, but in the South East of England it was everywhere. This habitual usage has been explained by academics, but to me sounds as though the speaker is just lacking in coinfidence in what they want to say, like, as if similar to what they mean. Growing up in Portsmouth in the 1960s, a different expression was common. Contemporaries at school would often say "I went" or "I goes" instead of "I said". They might say "I goes to 'im, give us a fag mush" (mush=mate), using the present tense to convey the past.

The phrase "Can I get" I only hear rarely now around here, except during the holiday season. It's when the sort of people my father would have called The Rodneys are ordering food or drink. Of course, the pedantic response to "Can I get a camel's milk caramel latte with two shots?" would be "I don't know, are you able to?"; or "No, it's behind the counter. I will get it for you". While I don't hear many "likes" or "gets" where I live, I do enjoy the creative blend of Cymraeg and English heard on the street, but don't tell the purists please. "Dw i'di bwcio few days off ynde" (Dw i wedi bwcio = I have booked).

I also savour the results of what seems to be predictive text or auto-correct. I have read many times in 5* reviews of hospitality services “I will defiantly return” (instead of definitely), and imagine that the restaurateur had previously told the customer not to hurry back due to some misdemeanour. "I will anyway" they seem to say. In others, I am delighted to read that the "dinning options were limited": thankfully so, as I prefer to dine with a bit of peace.

If this is what technology has done to the language, I'm not too worried about the threat from AI. Not yeti.

LINKS

etymology - How and when did “give it up for someone” start to mean asking for applause? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Gut reaction: cinema’s new wave of projectile vomiting | Film | The Guardian

expressions - History of the phrase "I was like.." or "I was all..." - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

“Up with which I will not put” — a bit of history and a caution | Odile Sullivan-Tarazi (palimpsestediting.com)

Don’t be a dinlo, you’ll have to brush up on the Pompey lingo | by Paul Foster | UoPjournalism | Medium

The relentless rise of the present tense in history programmes | Television | The Guardian