This is too good. You simply must read it.
The logical end to linguistic prescriptivism is a strange world.
HT: Mike Aubrey
I'm editing some Puritan prayers for a new Lexham Press project, and I'm really enjoying the edification provided by these wonderfully eloquent, godly Christians of yore. But I am most certainly keeping my thinking cap on as I read (that's my job), because the project...
This is exactly where I'm at: Either you smugly preen about the mistakes you find abhorrent – this makes you a so-called prescriptivist – or you show off your knowledge of language change, and poke holes in the prescriptivists’ facts – this makes you a descriptivist....
It seems that the phrase “grandfathered in”—as in, “Smokers who were already working at the company were grandfathered into the new health plan, but new hires won’t be able to get on if they smoke”—has its origins in overtly unjust, racist practices. This was sent to...
The ESV (2000s) of 1 Thessalonians 5:22: Abstain from every form of evil. Wycliffe’s translation (1380s) of the same verse: Absteyne you fro al yuel spice. Why did Wycliffe take a very general command—the most general command possible—and focus it on a very specific...
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Usage determines pronounciation. If only usage could determine spelling and grammar, but just my usage.
I had to re-comment on this post after watching Wheel of Fortune last night. Someone solved a puzzle: “A shot of espresso” but pronounced it like “expresso.” Pat said “we discussed the possibility of this happening before the show and decided we would accept that pronunciation since it’s such a common misuse these days.” Mark, for some reason you’re always the first person to come to mind when I see or hear anything that has to do with usage determining things. And then on a commercial after the show a lady said “I’m literally going to lose my mind” and that pushed me over the edge (figuratively). I think that my biggest usage pet peeve is the misuse of “literally”, and when someone says “I could care less.”
I think we do things like this all the time even in formal English. How do newscasters pronounce “Israel”? “IS-ree-uhl.” Clearly, however, the spelling would lead to “IS-rah-el.”
If “Isreeuhl” is acceptable to formal speakers of English, I see no reason that “expresso” couldn’t be someday. As for now, however, Pat Sajak is almost certainly right to call it a “misuse,” because he is speaking from a privileged social height—a nationally beloved game show. People in his class don’t say “expresso.”
One more example beside “Israel”: “I don’t know what you want” becomes in almost all except the most formal speech, “I dunno whatchoo want.” Listen to yourself next time you say something like that. We don’t even think about it. That pronunciation doesn’t match what we would normally expect from the spelling, but it’s not “wrong,” though it may be inappropriate in certain social situations.
I dunno whatchur talkin bout
Zackly!