Re: I had say it because I was afraid no one else would.

[Lin Sims <ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com>]

On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 1:55 PM, Sarah Stegall <sstegall -at- bivio -dot- net> wrote:
>

<snip>

> No, it does not. The English language does not belong to one company, it
> belongs to all of us. No one person or body of persons has the right to
> arbitrarily re-define words, make up words, or change words. Nothing,
> and I mean NOTHING that I have encountered in more than a dozen years in
> this business pisses me off more than the arrogance of marketing
> departments that freely and oblivously play hob with a thousand year old
> language--of which they are, largely, ignorant.

<snip>

> Don't bother arguing with me on this point. On anything else, we can
> agree to disagree, but on this one I am not rational.
>
> Sarah
> Locked, loaded and ready to rock

While in many ways I share your views on marketing departments, I
would like to point out that English has a grand tradition of making
up, or more often stealing from other languages, words for ideas and
concepts that it doesn't currently have words for.

As James Nicholls says:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that
English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow
words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways
to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

Even given that, however, anyone who thinks that "bookay" is an
acceptable spelling needs to be taken out and shot.

*still shuddering over _that_ particular ad*

-- 
Lin Sims
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