As she is spoke
Sir: Our English language is an endangered species. We are so prejudiced against Romance words, and consequently so illiterate, that we cannot use the words 'reduce' and 'proceed'. We 'cut' expenditure, inflation, employment and unemployment. We live with constant cuts and even cutbacks. Our language is suffering the death of a thousand cuts, because words which are not used must become obsolete. The assassins of English are the very persons who owe their livelihood to it and should be most concerned to preserve its variety, beauty and dignity: those who communicate orally or in print. This last reminds me of the common error by which a spoken message is called 'verbal'. 'Verbal' in fact applies to anything expressed in words, whereas 'oral' means 'by word of mouth'.
We seldom listen to a broadcast without hearing that people are 'going ahead with' a project, never proceeding or continuing. More often they 'get the go-ahead' or are 'given the go-ahead'. In the present decade, distinguished ministers of the crown are not dismissed or asked to resign; they are 'sacked'. Please, Sir, espouse the cause of good English, and let no one argue that there are many varieties of English. When a parent wishes his son to become proficient in French, does he tell him to find work in the dockyard at Marseilles, where French of a kind is spoken, or. does he send him to stay with a family where French is spoken correctly and gracefully?
Mary A. Lynch
St Joseph's Nursing Home, 15 Church Street, London N9
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