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The Rules of Writing
The living language is like a cow-path: it is the creation of the cows
themselves, who, having created it, follow it or depart from it according
to their whims or their needs. From daily use, the path undergoes change.
A cow is under no obligation to stay.
- E.B. White (elegant New Yorker writer of the mid-20th century)
A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a
living thought and may vary greatly in and content according to the
circumstances and the time in which it is used.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (famous jurist of the 19th and early 20thcentury)
The Rules of English Spelling.
Over time, spelling becomes as slippery as an olive-oiled eel.
It is at the mercy or countless pressures, both benign and barbaric. Among them:
- computerisation/computerization
- fone SMSes
- Ignorance
- Laziness
- Illiteracy
- Usage and
- Commonsense.
In changing for the better, the last two benign influences on this short-list are now overwhelmed by the first two destructive forces named above.
Personally, I have taken comfort - but not refuge - in this overwhelming challenge to good English and good order. I knew that spelling had never been logical. But it was only recently I discovered that not only is spelling illogical - its rules are usually unnecessary. The proof was in an email doing the rounds at the start of the 21st century. It read:
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!
We are witnessing the farewell to Caxton's printing press and a move back to verbal communication. It comes in the form of digitised recorded speech and obsessive, juvenile fone chatter. Soon spelling may be important only to legal documents; to records requiring accuracy of meaning, and to those who love literature (and writing, even when it fails to be published.)
It may mean that one day spelling, grammar and philology will be mere matters of choice and taste.
On the one hand we may be able to enjoy the freedom of ranging between those authors who purposefully defy some of the rules of language - such as James Joyce and even Sartre occasionally did - and those who couldn't care less; those who are happy to go with the flow of modern mode and cliche.
On the other hand it is possible that a significant proportion of the population will continue to admire the high standards of writing and artistry that usually require talent, effort, care and discipline.
If so, there remains the unfortunate possibility that this practice may become elitist and orthodox to the point where rules and vocabulary are mummified in the way the French language has become through over-regulation apparently.
Whatever the future, we should practise patience when Americans practice it with a 'c'. We should realise that u can abandon valour without losing honor.
We should appreciate that American speech in many instances has been faithful to its source and in some cases has more in common with Shakespeare's English than Anglican English has.
It is comforting to remember all of the above while witnessing today the crumbling literacy of the world's fastest growing language.
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