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<title>Book-Madness Blog</title><link>http://www.book-madness.com/index.html</link><description>News from Tiger of the Stripe</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>Tiger of the Stripe</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2009 Tiger of the Stripe</dc:rights><dc:date>2010-04-05T11:33:01+01:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:35:57 +0100</lastBuildDate><item><title>Language Rant</title><dc:creator>Tiger of the Stripe</dc:creator><category>Language</category><dc:date>2010-04-05T11:33:01+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.book-madness.com/index_files/322cad5ef66be6ea854714dc5dd400e8-40.html#unique-entry-id-40</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.book-madness.com/index_files/322cad5ef66be6ea854714dc5dd400e8-40.html#unique-entry-id-40</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[It is common in every generation to believe that one&rsquo;s language has been debased or polluted.   The French worry endlessly that their language is being contaminated by English; no doubt the English after the Norman invasion, when they were not bemoaning their loss of wealth and power, shed a tear for the debauching of their native tongue, not realising that it would eventually re-arise, strengthened and reinvigorated.


...Some aspects of US English are, indeed, hard to defend - can anyone seriously believe that Noah Webster&rsquo;s reformed spelling was an improvement, for instance? ...  On the other hand, no-one, surely, can fail to appreciate the beauty which some American writers have brought to even the humblest genres. 

...Nonetheless, the biggest threat to British English is not, I think, influences from the US, the EU or elsewhere, but sheer stupidity. ...  Do they think that the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg or its New York State namesake are founded upon cured pork products?


...In one history programme after another, presenters talk not of the mid nineteenth century&rsquo; but &lsquo;the mid 1800s&rsquo; to mean around 1850. ...  If someone doesn&rsquo;t want to use AD or BC, I certainly don&rsquo;t want to force them to do so, but why should we have these new terms forced upon us?
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