I kind of want to learn some Middle English stock phrases to grill anyone who complains about the changing nature of English being just political correctness. Like, “You want to be a language conservative? Here’s some Chaucer-era language motherfucker.”
here’s my favourite one: the oldest known use of singular “they” dates back further than the use of singular “you”, and it’s so old that it was still spelled with a thorn (þei)
Or people complaining about language changing in general. Not only are they usually wrong (eg “literally” has been used as a figurative intensifier for hundreds of years), they just happen to define the “correct” use of words as whatever they learned as kids.
Please, anyone who reads this, stop posting links to the mobile version of Wikipedia. It doesn’t switch automatically on PC, and I see it happen all the time. Just take the half a second to remove the “.m” from the beginning of the link, save everyone else from the pain of having to be surprised by it and taking the time to do it themselves.
I kind of want to learn some Middle English stock phrases to grill anyone who complains about the changing nature of English being just political correctness. Like, “You want to be a language conservative? Here’s some Chaucer-era language motherfucker.”
here’s my favourite one: the oldest known use of singular “they” dates back further than the use of singular “you”, and it’s so old that it was still spelled with a thorn (þei)
Simple way to remember:
Roses are red, violets are blue
Singular they predates singular you
Or people complaining about language changing in general. Not only are they usually wrong (eg “literally” has been used as a figurative intensifier for hundreds of years), they just happen to define the “correct” use of words as whatever they learned as kids.
~~https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription~~
I think the examples section might have some
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription
Please, anyone who reads this, stop posting links to the mobile version of Wikipedia. It doesn’t switch automatically on PC, and I see it happen all the time. Just take the half a second to remove the “.m” from the beginning of the link, save everyone else from the pain of having to be surprised by it and taking the time to do it themselves.
Like such as?
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