Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: BfloGuy
I'm not one for artificially modifying the language.

Nor I, but that is exactly what we did when we fixed the spellings of words in the 18th century, and unlike the French attempts it seems to have stuck, except for some other artificial changes (like us and the Aussies dropping some of the pointless u's from British spelling, and the odd simplification like Boro for Borough on signs.

Language is defined by its usage, so if, for instance, enough of us decided "to hell with being thought illiterate, I'm not going to spell the 'f' sound 'ph' ever again" and started writing about fotografs, filology and the like, in a generation that would be the standard spelling with the ph spellings listed as archaic in dictionaries of those latter days. (The same with punctuation and other usage: a mass movement to not put a comma in front of "which" would eventually change "correct" usage, just as enough of us applying the modal meaning of "hopefully" is eroding the prescriptivist insistence that it only means "in a hopeful manner" -- hopefully the correctness of the modal meaning will soon be universally acknowledged.)

22 posted on 05/28/2012 5:19:47 PM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies ]


To: The_Reader_David
Language is defined by its usage

Yes, you're right, of course [note the commas, I love 'em.] I just want to resist changes to the language until the pressure is irresistible. Too many of the changes, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, are due to a lack of education or the desire for ease at the expense of precision.

23 posted on 05/29/2012 3:41:49 PM PDT by BfloGuy (The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson