Double Journal Entry #3

Quote: “Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University and author of “Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World,” shares Crystal’s view. She predicts that the number of “textisms” will stop growing as people continue to develop more proficiency in using handheld devices and as the devices continue to grow more sophisticated than simple telephone touch pads. She adds that part of the appeal of texting shorthands is their novelty, and that that will fade.”

My reaction: A more simple way to restate Baron’s claim is to borrow from an old cliché, ‘and this too shall pass’.  I can remember when pig Latin was all the rage, but that didn’t survive either, nor did valley girl talk. There are many other fads that have passed that could have changed the way we spelled certain words forever, which is why we need to be cautious about changing the way we have spelled words for over a century. Another thought I have is, who is to say what is the right way to spell a word? Many of our words in the American English language have come from the languages of immigrants. If we change the way those words are spelled, we may very well change the meaning of the word because the origin may eventually be lost. How can you understand what a word means if you can’t identify the root, or prefix or suffix that might give you a clue as to what origin the word came from. Also, it would take a much larger effort to educate a small number of young people to spell the way their parents, grandparents, and generations before, have spelled rather than take a much larger population of people and ask them to relearn a different way of spelling to accommodate a smaller population. It seems to me that changing how we spell specific words should not be a priority. Sometimes conformity is a good thing and learning to spell in a more complex language certainly is good exercise for the brain. If we are going to ask an older population to learn anything new, I think it would be best to ask them to spend time on getting computer literate and digitally oriented. Perhaps then they could show the younger people how to use spell check.

Source:

Shea, Ammon. "On Language: The Keypad Solution." New York Times 22 Jan. 2010, magazine ed. Web. 11 Sept. 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24FOB-onlanguage-t.html.

On the lighter side of things, this little alien pokes fun at the English language:

Strassman, Dave. “Kevin the Alien Discusses the English Language.” 08 June 2009. You Tube.com. 11 Sept. 2011

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB3g7PcF1vs>.