Self-anointed guardians of the English language show an amazing, amusing lack of respect for the language they purport to protect.
Phil Corbett, Standards Editor of the New York Times, decreed this week that tweet was not “standard English” and thus not fit for the news columns of the Times, except under special conditions, perhaps a doctor’s excuse or a note from the bird’s mother.
One of my favorite things about our language is how fluid, inventive and expressive it is. We don’t speak or write now as they did in the age of Chaucer or Shakespeare, or even in the groovy 1960s when I was growing up. Yet each new word or expression is vigorously resisted by people who cherish the past of language but wish to deny it a future. (more…)
The Buttry Diary 