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gnr302 wrote:

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I hate all the Americanisms creeping into our language. There is no word in the English language "gotten",. yet all of a sudden everyone is using it, even on RTE. The word is "got". Also why are people now going on vacation, when they are actually going on holiday.
And worst of all, people are now saying "I guess" when they are not guessing. They are thinking, reckoning, supposing, whatever, but guess is a very specific word, which is now being used in a totally different context, a la America.

Ah but this raises the perennial question of what language we speak. It could be argued that the English speak English, the Americans speak American, the Canadians speak Canadian, the Australians speak Australian and the Irish speak Hiberno-English. The Oxford English Dictionary agree with this. Under the word 'gotten', they say:
"The form gotten is not used in British English but is very common in North American English, though even there it is often regarded as non-standard."
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/gotten?view=uk

Notice they say British English. As for our language, might want to check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English

Language is an evolving thing. Rules that were acceptable a hundred years ago do not necessarily apply today. Words appear all the time and become part of the vernacular such as blog, internet and others. The people of Ireland have spoken the language for over hundred and fifty years. In that time we have adopted words from other English speaking countries around the world and made it our own. We in Ireland have even added words to the language which I'm sure some people know. Sadly I believe within a hundred years the word 'teh' will be a real word.

Not wanting to upset anyone, but a lot of threads on this board actually have a common theme underlying them. This one discusses the evolution of language, however otehr topics have people thinking Dublin's buses should be green, routes from the past should be brought back, along with certain practices. The reason being all of these things are clear markers of the passing years and our own morality, and not necessarily that the past was a better place. Psychologically speaking, people don't like change as it shows just how finite our own lives are. In twenty or thirty years time, I'm sure I'll wish all the buses in the country will be blue/yellow and the words we speak today will still be spoken today. Sorry for getting a bit deep towards the end here, I too went through a marker of mortality recently. Normal discussion may resume...