16 August 2019
David Shariatmadari has a nice piece on the myth of the decline of the English language in The Guardian.
He writes:
There is no such thing as linguistic decline, so far as the expressive capacity of the spoken or written word is concerned. We need not fear a breakdown in communication. Our language will always be as flexible and sophisticated as it has been up to now. Those who warn about the deterioration of English haven’t learned about the history of the language, and don’t understand the nature of their own complaints – which are simply statements of preference for the way of doing things they have become used to.
There’s nothing new here for those that have studied the myth, but it’s a concise debunking and useful for reference.
