I think that you might have hit the nail on the head Winsor. It is a
sort of snobbery of language where Latinate endings are concerned,
whereas the teaching of our own language, imported and Latinate words
included, is so poor in the English-speaking countries that fewer and
fewer are equipped to argue about meanings or spellings.
John's point about English's origins is useful, but we should still
teach children our language, grammar, syntax and vocabulary, so that
they have the basic tools for use in communication - written or
spoken. At present we have evolution of the language because of
ignorance of a word's spelling or meaning; convenience rather than
elegance is the watchword.
But basic meanings are being lost through misuse. On the front of
Flight International for a couple of weeks ago, I notice a headline:
"Latin America's success stories - why two airlines are weathering
reagion's economic storms." We know "why" the airlines are doing it
as presumably they wish to continue in business, the word should be
"how".
Chris
At 12:36 -0700 26/6/02, Winsor Crosby wrote:
I suppose that my query was intended to be more philosophical than
historical. It seems to me that regularizing endings by dumping Latin
endings for words that have been integrated into the English is part
of the process of language development. However, at every step of
the way you have people jumping up and down shouting, "Corruption!",
almost in the same manner that the French sneer at poorly spoken
French. Inherited attitude? Hmmm. The irony is that the Latinate
ending could be argued to be the corruption.
In addition the disagreement smacks of class structure which
Americans and Canadians like to pretend that they left behind. If I
say 'octopi' or use some other Latinate plural outside of a
specialized environment, it immediately identifies me as better
educated or even seeing myself as higher class than the majority use
a more normalized plural ending. One result is that the user of
Latinate endings that are not general usage and irregular in English
get to be seen as conservative and out of touch at best, and
pretentious at worst.
So let's hear it for the Anglo-Saxons. :-)
--
Winsor Crosby
Long Beach, California
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--
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C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.
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