Achingly astute: my latest linguistic hero

Praise from an unexpected quarter. Thanks, Kamahl.

Originally posted on In Praise of the Written Word:

First, I must tip my hat to my Al Jazeera Engish colleague Bernard Smith for emailing this link out to our whole newsroom. ��I hope everyone reads it.

Until today I��d never heard of Jeremy Butterfield. ��He is (seeing as you asked) the editor of Fowler��s Dictionary of Modern English Usage, and has written a brilliant��Comment is Free��article in today��s��Guardian newspaper:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/03/bad-language-bugs-me

Jeremy is, I believe, a little bit like me. ��Slightly pedantic, occasionally furious, but always passionate about defending��the English language. ��The examples he gives in his article are things I see creeping into journalism all the time �� even TV journalism, which is supposed to be all about simplicity and speaking normally.

Jeremy ��whether it��s the linguist��s hat or tinfoil hat you occasionally forget to don*,��I��m glad you do. ��English will of course evolve, as it must. ��But isn��t��it��equally, if not more important��

View original 26 more words

Filed under: Uncategorized