Introduction to Oimar
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Wah yo saund lahk thae?
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 16 Mar 2020, 18:28.
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Post Modern English aka "Oimar" is the evolution of American English. It is spoken by residents of the continental United States of America. American English underwent a metamorphosis over the course of a few hundred years due to a shift in pronunciation and spelling, as well as the addition of various neologisms.This article is an overview of the factors that brought Oimar into existence. I’ll discuss the actual changes that Modern American English (MAE) went through to become Post Modern English (PMOE) in other lessons.
The primary driving force behind the evolution from MAE to PMOE was the ever-growing popularity of African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Since the country’s Black population is heavily concentrated in the southeast, the spread of AAVE carried along with it the Southern American Dialect. AAVE, complemented by a southern drawl, was primarily responsible for pushing MAE through a transformation.
The first changes to MAE came in the subtle form of minor vowel and consonant shifts and casual syntax. For example, it was already relatively common for phrases like, “She is my friend,” and “I did that already,” to be pronounced more like, “Shih mah fren,” and “Ah ded thad owredy,” although generally those pronunciations were not considered proper outside of certain regions and social groups. Over time AAVE become more widespread with help from pop culture, the internet, and an increasingly relaxed attitude towards grammar.
Overall, AAVE is heavily responsible for much of Oimar phonology and syntax.
The growth of the Spanish-speaking population from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic also had a huge impact on MAE. The differences between English and Spanish pronunciation of vowels was another push in the direction of the Second Great Vowel Shift. The Spanish influence also changed the way Americans viewed consonants. For example, the syllabic L-sound at the end of words like “people” and “grapple” became an “-o”. Likewise, the S/Z-sound at the end of many plural words became an “-ez”.
Not only did MAE become more hispanic, it also gained quite a few Spanglish and Spanoimish neologisms. Words like “aye” and “wae” are neither English nor Spanish, but are unique to Oimar. Many Oimar pronouns are also technically Spanoimish, like “vursur”. The inclusion of a large variety of pronouns is partly due to hispanic influence, although there are multiple reasons for this.
There is no escaping the effect the internet and technology had on various aspects of MAE. Text messaging and social media introduced a new form of communication called txtspk. Using txtspk changed the rules of grammar, allowing people to omit superfluous words, alter spellings, and even make up words, as long as the underlying message got across. This type of communication is one of the factors behind Oimar brevity. There are also many new words in Oimar that are technology-age inventions, like “tihldur” and “suhs”.
The timing of this relaxed grammar allowed AAVE and Spanish idiosyncrasies to flourish and become part of mainstream English. The txtspk way of semi-phonetic spelling eventually became more universal. Generally, Oimar spelling is much more straightforward than MAE, although it still carries the English legacy of the silent “e” behind long vowels in words like “thae” and “bole” and double consonants behind short vowels in words like “blessor” .
The Japanese influence was a lot lighter and later, but still definitely noticeable enough to mention. Unlike AAVE, Spanish, and txtspk, Japanese wasn’t already a major part of English or American culture. The relationship between America and Japan grew steadily over time. The two countries being the world’s technology superpowers led to increased cooperation and therefore a natural amount of cultural transference.
The most notable contribution Japanese culture and language made to Oimar is the addition of politeness. Because of regular interaction with the Japanese, Oimar developed distinct formal and informal pronouns and adopted a Japanese-inspired polite verb suffix “-su”. The mixture of cultures also introduced a number of Japanoimish neologisms, like “bihto”.
Of course, the main thing that made Oimar possible was the passage of time. A few hundred years changed the cultural landscape of America. It would not have been possible for such a change to take place in modern times, as there was still a fairly strict adherence to old grammatical rules as well as a general perception of “impure” English (like AAVE and Spanglish) being the product of a lack of education or a lower social class. As rules were rewritten and prejudices were forgotten in post modern America, new generations of Americans embraced a language that was uniquely theirs. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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