The Washington Post - opinion column on WP style guide for language use
Was it really that crazy for a newspaper to reject the mistaken spelling?
In this entertaining column, Bill Walsh, a copy editor at the Post, discusses what his issues are with evolving language - especially when it is incorrect in form. While criticized at times for fighting against trends in language, Walsh identifies some reasons why some of these changes were so slowly accepted.
Once central reason had to do with structure and sound: "Still, mic is an aberration. Words like that aren’t pronounced like that. A bicycle is a bike, not a bic. Bic, as in the pens, rhymes with Mick. So do hic and Nic and pic and Ric and sic and tic and Vic. That’s how short forms work: They’re intended to be pronounced, and so they’re spelled phonetically. You don’t just start subtracting letters until you’re left with something approximate. A refrigerator is a fridge; frig is a mild curse word that rhymes with pig."
He also addresses the ongoing and controversial question of "what is known as the singular they as the only sensible solution to English’s lack of a gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun." Walsh claims that "Alternating he and she is silly, as are he/she, (s)he and attempts at made-up pronouns. The only thing standing in the way of they has been the appearance of incorrectness — the lack of acceptance among educated readers."
The Post drops the ‘mike’ — and the hyphen in ‘e-mail’
In this entertaining column, Bill Walsh, a copy editor at the Post, discusses what his issues are with evolving language - especially when it is incorrect in form. While criticized at times for fighting against trends in language, Walsh identifies some reasons why some of these changes were so slowly accepted.
Once central reason had to do with structure and sound: "Still, mic is an aberration. Words like that aren’t pronounced like that. A bicycle is a bike, not a bic. Bic, as in the pens, rhymes with Mick. So do hic and Nic and pic and Ric and sic and tic and Vic. That’s how short forms work: They’re intended to be pronounced, and so they’re spelled phonetically. You don’t just start subtracting letters until you’re left with something approximate. A refrigerator is a fridge; frig is a mild curse word that rhymes with pig."
He also addresses the ongoing and controversial question of "what is known as the singular they as the only sensible solution to English’s lack of a gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun." Walsh claims that "Alternating he and she is silly, as are he/she, (s)he and attempts at made-up pronouns. The only thing standing in the way of they has been the appearance of incorrectness — the lack of acceptance among educated readers."
The Post drops the ‘mike’ — and the hyphen in ‘e-mail’
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