A review of Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language by Patricia T O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman and The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of "Proper" English, from Shakespeare to South Park by Jack Lynch (and more and more). Some care about getting English right; others don’t — for those who do, there is Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage. The two-volume, 4,448-page Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary lays claim to being the largest and the first historical thesaurus compiled for any language. William Zinsser on writing English as a second language. From The Guardian Weekly, an article on a policy in Mauritius that banishes the majority language of Kreol from schools and imposes English in its place; and international charities are warning that global efforts to raise education outcomes are being held back by the widespread denial of schooling in children’s first languages. Is technology dumbing down Japanese? Here's a map of the world that shows countries re-sized in proportion to the number of languages they’ve produced. The beckoning silence: Why half of the world's languages are in serious danger of dying out. Languages are vanishing — so what?: Maybe fewer languages would be better. Meep!: Jan Freeman on the power of the meaningless. Skxawng: Ben Zimmer on the making of science-fiction languages. Linguist Paul Frommer, creator of the Na’vi language in James Cameron's Avatar, is holding out hope that Na’vi will follow the example of Klingon, the “gold standard for this alien language niche” (and more and more and more).
