Dan Faas’ column, Abbreviations Killing English (SN 10/14), is more exasperating than educational. The notion that the English language ever could undergo “complete bastardization” cheerfully ignores the fact that English is itself a bastard language.
In the wake of invasions by the Norse Vikings and the Norman French, English speakers adopted thousands of loan words from those two languages. The grammatical structure of English has, over time, shifted dramatically: Old English nouns were once inflected for case, gender, number and class, whereas present-day English nouns generally are inflected only for number. Since the invention of the printing press, English vowel sounds have shifted to such a degree that our orthographical system no longer matches our oral pronunciation.
Most importantly, all of this is normal and none of this impedes our ability to use English as a means of effective communication. And nothing ever will. The idea that any English speakers could “(denigrate) our language down to the bare minimum” is based on feelings, not facts.
Does Mr. Faas intend to prove that our vocab is shrinking to include only the words Miley Cyrus, with assorted grunting sounds thrown in for good measure, and that we will soon find ourselves unable to express OMG sry i txted so much i killed the eng lang? Unlikely.
The fact that Mr. Faas is the proud owner of a student newspaper column and three-quarters of a college degree does not necessarily lend academic legitimacy to his linguistic pet peeves. I would totes LOL if I weren’t so over it.
Reese Havlatka
graduate student
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