GOOD QUESTION! Does English Need an Academy to Protect It? |
In June, the Wire noted that the encroachment of such loathsome Yankeeisms as "Hey guys!" (referring to a mixed-sex crowd) and potato "chips" (not "crisps") left the U.K. Daily Mail no choice but todeclare war on American English. But such measures are short-lived. How, in the long run, can English speakers preserve the distinctive dialects of their shared language? One earnest proposal from the Queen's English Society is to establish an Academy of English, modeled on the French Académie Française, to enforce proper usage. Elizabeth Renzetti, a columnist for Canada's Globe and Mail, weighs that and other options:
