Quote

The story of English spelling is the story of thousands of people - some well-known, most totally unknown - who left a permanent linguistic fingerprint on our orthography.

David Crystal

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David Crystal
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: July 6
Author
Linguist
Sociolinguist
Writer
Story
Fingerprints
Left
Spelling
Stories
Unknown
Wells
Thousands
Well
Permanent
Fingerprint
People
Totally
Linguists
English
Linguistics
Known
Linguistic

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As I get older and I get a few more years experience I become more like Dad, you know, King Lear.
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At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects.
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Vocabulary is a matter of word-building as well as word-using.
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You don't talk to a linguist without having what you say taken down and used in evidence against you at some point in time.
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Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices.
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Ever since the arrival of printing - thought to be the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into people's minds - people have been arguing that new technology would have disastrous consequences for language.
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Research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you have to know how to manipulate language.
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It took three years to put Shakespeare's words together, there were a lot of words to be studied and a lot of words to be sorted out, and it proved to be a major project.
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Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly.
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Although many texters enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood.
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Swearing makes an excellent relief mechanism
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