LANGUAGE AND SPELLING @ Edit Red Writing Community

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Thunderpen
Parris ja Young
United States

It's true, I misspell. In fact, I'm a lousy speller. And I make typos. But I am quite a good proofreader. Therefore when JohnQ of the Chronicle says I had misspelled �??high school�?� every time I used the expression I have to take exception.

I had written �??highschool�?�. Here is my reasoned and reasonable defense.

Language is a living, growing thing. Outside our doors on this very day, young people from about 21 to 33 are creating language. I don't mean hi-tech words or the phony speak of ad-men and pharmaceutical companies, or the linking of Latinate roots scientists love. I mean real language. This is why there are a great number of languages on the world scale. It is the young people in their power years that travel far to start new settlements. Given some time �?? who understands time these days? �?? these upstart settlements develop new accents, pronunciations, and finally, new languages.

Somewhere in the dusty past is the �??high language�?� �?? the Ur language, the Root of the roots �?? but that is a matter for some other time.

The printing press has slowed the evolution of language to a slog. We can still read Shakespeare in the original, and some of us can muddle through Middle English. Old English seems another language altogether.

But language cannot be brought to an absolute halt. Even the OED (Oxford English Dictionary), the reference of record for our language, must constantly add changes.

And if we study the references and regard the 'From' entry, we mostly find that the �??first use�?� was by some poet, writer, person of �??letters�?� or even, gads! some newspaper man.

Some years ago, during the Enlightenment of the 60's and 70's, I decided, based on a perceived need, that we needed a genderless pronoun. So I coined �??te�?�. Te, to me, means either 'he', or 'she' and does away with awkward and odious expressions like �??him- or herself�?� with which we struggle to correct the gender prejudice currently written into our language. Thus �??tes�?� becomes the possessive case, meaning belonging to either him or her. And �??ter�?� becoming the objective case, meaning �??to him�?� or �??to her�?�.

I thought I was alone in this, but later I found the gender-just poet Marge Piercy using the same pronoun in the same way. There are other progressive poets and writers using te. It is, in fact, a spontaneous change in the language that will dawn upon us sooner or later.

I have not used te in newspaper writing because it was discovered during a time of spiritual enlightenment, of progressive consciousness, and of experimentation. Presently the weltgeist, particularly in the U.S.A., is of spiritual retreat and radical reactionaryism (Excuse me: �??reactionaryism�?� is a horrible looking word, but there is plenty of legitimate precedence).

The Germans are great at complex words. Our language is learning that. Words commonly used together, like �??high school�?�, becomes high-school; that is, linked by a hyphen. Later it becomes one word. As a writer I have decided to opt for the progressive spelling: highschool.

I am not a bully. I do not intend to assault you, my reader, with neologisms just to look progressive or smart. But I gently ask you to permit my slightly progressive use of compound words, from easily understood roots, that I believe will become common usage someday soon.

lin E-mail this user Add to Readers 12/08/2007	Unlike Spanish and French and such, English has no official academy. Actually, the statement "everybody uses that word wrong" is meaningless in English.

Boonrassi E-mail this user Add to Readers 12/08/2007	So I coined �??te�?�. //thats ultra cool man.. its truly wild that Marge Piercy was using it also. But I gently ask you to permit my slightly progressive use of compound words, from easily understood roots, //you got it. Presently the weltgeist, particularly in the U.S.A., is of spiritual retreat //i couldnt disagree more.. i think more people than ever are seeking the Truth. you guys read each others stuff yet? T

ThePenguin Online E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	Look up Meihem in ce klasrum" - dated 1946....

gmarco E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	Wut iz u meaning?

Kendall20 E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	Outside our doors on this very day, young people from about 21 to 33 are creating language. OMG! That's me! Try this one on for size. It's an all-utility phrase! It can express any emotion and be said at any decibel... BIZOW!

flack47 Online E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	lmao@Bizow! I like it. I'll help spread that. I'm as gung ho as the next fella when it comes to the evolution of a language. HOWEVER the thing that scares me about the aforementioned age group that is charged with the task of changing the language is that the lay person is embracing degeneration, rather than improvement. Words are shortened purposely so that they seem cooler (I suppose), despite little to no intended phonetic or functional change. That's just laziness. Post edited on: 13/08/2007 01:27:34 PM Post edited on: 13/08/2007 01:28:22 PM

lin E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	Laziness is a proven improver of language. English is less inflected than Latin and guess what...it's a superior language because of that. In the future we might see even less inflection because much of it is not needed. (Look at Chinese and Japanese, for example) As far as spelling...why have stupid spellings like "light" or "through" and the obviously rhyming "though" when lite and thru and tho are shorter, easier, less confusing, more logical and easier for foreigners to learn?

Boonrassi E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	thanks Penguin.. how the heck did you find that? its a riot.

ThePenguin Online E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	:-) Tim: you're welcome! Had a copy of the Astounding mag that first printed it. I've got this book in my library from WAY back (1969) which reprinted it. So I knew what to look up on the Web. Half-remember an essay by George Bernard Shaw on language (can't find it), but GBS lays out most of the ideas in Pygmalion ("My Fair Lady", if you're into musicals). Plus, worked with a linguistics expert years ago on a project that looked at how languages devolve (yes, Devolve, not Evolve). Funny, the stuff about txting and the abreviations used was first proposed more than a century ago! And, sorry, Parris - your "invention" of Te/Ter/Tes goes back to the 1920's, with some references that might go back into the 1800's. But it is/was a great idea, As for "highschool" vs "high-school" vs "high school", common practice seems to be reducing it to just "high", as in "I went to Xxxx High" - references are becoming more specific, not generalised.

GLWard E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	Peter, that thing just got harder and harder to read! Boy, I'm glad it didn't happen. LOL As for that particular age group changing our language... scary part is in a few years, we'll all have to learn to speak the way they text!

karjon E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	Really? Devolve, not evolve? Isn't it a balance between the two?

sudipal E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	Other languages have separate words (ie. nouns, verbs, adj., etc.) for the masculine and feminine. English only does this for pronouns (and "you" is genderless).

Boonrassi E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	Had a copy of the Astounding mag that first printed it. //wow.. i spent many a night with Astounding and a flashlight under the sheets.. the covers were like magnets. Funny, the stuff about txting and the abreviations used was first proposed more than a century ago! //interesting.. and my cell phone looks just like James Kirks communicator. haha. T

ThePenguin Online E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	Karen: I should have used the word "degenerate" rather than "devolve". The observations of the study were that early languages have a far more robust set of declensions (for nouns, pronouns and even some adjectives: Latin, for example, has the cases Nominative, Vocative, Ojective, Genitive, Ablative, Locative) Other early languages had as many as 10 (Sanscrit); Chinese has only one case; and English is almost as "simple". Verbs got conjugated, with ist, 2nd, 3rd person, but the third person distinguished between male, female, mixed and neuter, both in singular and plural. I won't list the tenses... There were often four or five classes of verbs - English has, more or less, two such classes - regular and irregular, not counting things like transitive and non-transitive verbs. The list goes on, with the move away from combinations like "th", "ch" (as in loch), "sh", "zh", "dh", "tz", "dz", "dv", "tv". Call it simplification, if you prefer, but I still prefer "devolve" or "degenerate". Post edited on: 13/08/2007 09:55:27 PM

ThePenguin Online E-mail this user Add to Readers 13/08/2007	"i spent many a night with Astounding and a flashlight under the sheets." You're too young to have done that, unless your grandfather was an SF afficcionado :-)

TequilaTwilight E-mail this user Add to Readers 14/08/2007	Isn't part of a writer's description "wordsmith"? therefore is it not part of what we do and what we are that we f*ck around with language? i love messing about with words and some words in the dictionary dont work for me til i twang them a little. go on, have a play, tinker about, shake the proverbial 8Ball of literature and see what spills out when ya drop it! woo!

Lakotadan E-mail this user Add to Readers 14/08/2007	Everyone's statements are quite on and I have found out once one is published commercially one can f--- around with words, but until that time, it's the agent,editor,and publisher's call. Rules,rules,and more rules. " finished reading Robin Cook, "Blind Sight" and he broke all kinds of rules or should I say--all the rules I have been called on through critiques. THe same holds true with Daniell Steele's every other word(exaggerated)ends with ly. So once a word is envented it has to be picked up in a media blitz and become a common everyday word or phrase. Like the original poster stated:the younger generation is creating new words, meanings and phrases. "Rappers" and their bling. Hook-up has a new meaning. You live in a cult they have a special language of their own to distinguish themselves from the outsiders. This is the end of my rambling.

Teri E-mail this user Add to Readers 14/08/2007	Oh, lord. First a mention of Anita Shreve on one thread and now Danielle Steele on this one. And all in one day. """... I have found out once one is published commercially one can f--- around with words, but until that time, it's the agent,editor,and publisher's call.""" This pretty much says it all.

Boonrassi E-mail this user Add to Readers 14/08/2007	##Rules,rules,and more rules. " finished reading Robin Cook, "Blind Sight" and he broke all kinds of rules or should I say--all the rules I have been called on through critiques. //i agree.. also, his work has really changed in the later books. im not thrilled with it. i would swear that the clive cussler, stephen king, james patterson, and cook books are being written by teams of people. the changes in these writers writing styles just dont make sense. T

GLWard E-mail this user Add to Readers 14/08/2007	"Ain't ain't in the dictionary, so ain't ain't a word" Thirty years ago (i just dated myself didn't i) that was true. But it appears in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate. 11th edition. Amazing, isn't it?

Lakotadan E-mail this user Add to Readers 14/08/2007	Ain't isn't a formal word, but you can get away from that in using it in dialouge. IMHO there are formal and informal uses of everything in writing as long as your work is acceptable, and publishable. God only knows what is acceptable.

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