I was a language snob. It used to irk me that people would misuse and mis-spell, assemble with incorrect grammar and obfusticate English but I’m modifying my view.
I’m still pretty conservative about poor grammar and overly complicated jargon and would like to see that improved. I would really like never to hear “going forward” ever spoken again when the meaning is actually “from now on” or better yet “thenceforward”.
I'd also like us to stop adding extra sylables to words that don't need them. For example, the work "orient" works pretty well - "orientation", "oriented", "disoriented" - all fine. Why do people want to use "orientate" ? Like "comment"; if you comment then you're a "commentor" not a "commentator". (And "dictator" - really, they're just "dicks".)
Regarding spelling; I’ve tempered my outlook. I saw this great example of English’s current foolishness:
Based on: enough where gh is pronounced f, women where o is pronounced i and option where ti is pronounced sh, we can therefore spell the word fish thusly: ghoti.
Apparently The Netherlands has rationalised the Dutch language several times over its history. I think it’s time to do the same for English. We should start small. As a first step let us ban “c”. We’ve got “k” and “s” so there’s no need of “c” for anything.
Last Updated on Sun, May 2, 2021.