One of the things that have most annoyed and depressed me over the last 40 years or so, and perhaps even more so today, has been the tacit acceptance by middle of the road and conservative citizens of language designed by the political and social Left to co-opt any resistance to their policies even before any honest discussion about them can take place. Examples are everywhere, but here are just a few: gender affirming care, “our democracy”, mostly peaceful protest, right wing or fascist (as applied to label those who want less government control over citizens, the near opposite of fascism) vs. left wing (amazingly, no one is ever identified as such), insurrection as applied to protests - out-of-control or not) that aren’t explicitly Leftist in nature, and on and on.
A performative expression - Whatever, Dude! - is one of my favorites. Even though 'whatever' alone can usually get the job done. I must say, it doesn't in anyway satisfy the recipient. Quite the opposite. The reply from them is generally more performative than my own. ;-)
This however, "The defence (sic) of the English language…has nothing to do with correct grammar and syntax, which are of no importance so long as one makes one's meaning clear, or with the avoidance of Americanisms…" made my day.
I got into a tiff with a commenter the other day when I wrote "Wahlah" and they (user name: pinoche...) criticized, as improper grammar, my writing such a thing by asking "what does that even mean?" They then answered their own question by saying the word is "voila." So I said "wahlah means voila." (I started to say that it was an Americanism but thought better, thinking I may be the only American who uses it. Hey, but who's counting, right.? ;-)) They would have none of that. They got kind of nasty with me at this point, so I said I don't think your complaint has so much to do with improper grammar as it does with improper or poor 'diction.' (Even though Wahlah isn't really a word, still) I was surprised when he let me have the last word by leaving me alone after that. To my credit, I never got nasty with him as he did with me. ;-)
Note the capitalization's of the direct copy and paste below: what am I missing here?, again:
Merriam Webster: Vwa-Lah, Wa-Lah, Wa-La: The Many Misspellings of Voilà. It is clear that the \v\ in the pronunciation of voilà is sometimes not heard, and this, combined with the mismatch between voilà’s spelling and pronunciation, has led to a number of misspellings of the word based on its pronunciation.
The Urban dictionary was not so kind: "Voila" for idiots.
"Voila" is French for "Look Here" but people who are clueless sometimes say or spell it "Wa-lah" because the French do not pronounce the "V" as clearly as English speakers would.
Anyway Max, I obviously enjoyed your article. I often wish I had taken a course or two in writing, but just as obviously never did. Thanx for another great article. BTW, you had me going down a rabbit hole with your Beatles links, and I bout never made it back here. ;-)
Woke words demonstrate fealty to the group and are essentially emotional expressions. Hence the F-bombs. They aren't looking to reason, explain, and convince; the woke want your obedience. The totalitarian impulse is as old as man; free expression is its foremost enemy.
Great essay, Max and, as always, I suggest folks find their way to Richard Mitchell's (RIP) writings on language at The Underground Grammarian (https://sourcetext.com/grammarian/). And I'm still working on High Jingo--I seem to have been distracted by several other books, as per usual.
This crystalizes so much of my discontent with the voices of opposition, and resistance, and correctitude. I refuse to engage, but of course that eliminates a lot of incipient conversations... not a bad trade-off, I think... and it does preserve some friendships.
At one job, I learned a lesson about clarity in writing. Colleagues and I developed a novel protective coating. Our boss referred our good news to the in-house patent attorney, who decided to go ahead and apply for a US patent. We gave him our relevant records and a thorough, clear written explanation. When he sent back his draft patent application for review, we engineer-inventors were aghast. His draft was both dense and vague, leaving out key points. We went through round after round of revision with him but seemed to be getting nowhere. EUREKA MOMENT! We finally realized that, while a patent was supposed to describe the invention to the public, the company wanted potential competitors to be mixed up and unable to practice it properly themselves. Our lawyer wanted to get the patent approved with the least possible useful disclosure, and he succeeded.
In government, the legislators and bureaucrats want to conceal their stealing/treachery, so their written output has to be impossible for outsiders to understand or even want to read. In politics, candidates who despise their voters want them to think "he's one of us!" so they use profanity, wardrobe, and other cheap tricks to put that idea across.
Love what you're doing here, love Orwell, the Beatles, etc...Louis XIV, as I was taught at the Lycée Français de NY, set the bar of fashion to be so high and so expensive and kept obsolescing ( is that a word? ) it in order to impoverish the nobility and keep them addicted, as you say, to being at his court rather than on their lands maintaining their independence. He figured out how to enslave them to be "politically correct." In other words, he was a great influencer! Thanks for the trip down memory lane....where everything old is new again.
One of the things that have most annoyed and depressed me over the last 40 years or so, and perhaps even more so today, has been the tacit acceptance by middle of the road and conservative citizens of language designed by the political and social Left to co-opt any resistance to their policies even before any honest discussion about them can take place. Examples are everywhere, but here are just a few: gender affirming care, “our democracy”, mostly peaceful protest, right wing or fascist (as applied to label those who want less government control over citizens, the near opposite of fascism) vs. left wing (amazingly, no one is ever identified as such), insurrection as applied to protests - out-of-control or not) that aren’t explicitly Leftist in nature, and on and on.
A performative expression - Whatever, Dude! - is one of my favorites. Even though 'whatever' alone can usually get the job done. I must say, it doesn't in anyway satisfy the recipient. Quite the opposite. The reply from them is generally more performative than my own. ;-)
This however, "The defence (sic) of the English language…has nothing to do with correct grammar and syntax, which are of no importance so long as one makes one's meaning clear, or with the avoidance of Americanisms…" made my day.
I got into a tiff with a commenter the other day when I wrote "Wahlah" and they (user name: pinoche...) criticized, as improper grammar, my writing such a thing by asking "what does that even mean?" They then answered their own question by saying the word is "voila." So I said "wahlah means voila." (I started to say that it was an Americanism but thought better, thinking I may be the only American who uses it. Hey, but who's counting, right.? ;-)) They would have none of that. They got kind of nasty with me at this point, so I said I don't think your complaint has so much to do with improper grammar as it does with improper or poor 'diction.' (Even though Wahlah isn't really a word, still) I was surprised when he let me have the last word by leaving me alone after that. To my credit, I never got nasty with him as he did with me. ;-)
Note the capitalization's of the direct copy and paste below: what am I missing here?, again:
Merriam Webster: Vwa-Lah, Wa-Lah, Wa-La: The Many Misspellings of Voilà. It is clear that the \v\ in the pronunciation of voilà is sometimes not heard, and this, combined with the mismatch between voilà’s spelling and pronunciation, has led to a number of misspellings of the word based on its pronunciation.
The Urban dictionary was not so kind: "Voila" for idiots.
"Voila" is French for "Look Here" but people who are clueless sometimes say or spell it "Wa-lah" because the French do not pronounce the "V" as clearly as English speakers would.
Anyway Max, I obviously enjoyed your article. I often wish I had taken a course or two in writing, but just as obviously never did. Thanx for another great article. BTW, you had me going down a rabbit hole with your Beatles links, and I bout never made it back here. ;-)
Those Beatles links can be like chips.
Woke words demonstrate fealty to the group and are essentially emotional expressions. Hence the F-bombs. They aren't looking to reason, explain, and convince; the woke want your obedience. The totalitarian impulse is as old as man; free expression is its foremost enemy.
BTW, Max, I thoroughly enjoyed High Jingo!
Thanks, Tim, on the novel. In the U.S., obedience can be hard to come by.
Great essay, Max and, as always, I suggest folks find their way to Richard Mitchell's (RIP) writings on language at The Underground Grammarian (https://sourcetext.com/grammarian/). And I'm still working on High Jingo--I seem to have been distracted by several other books, as per usual.
This crystalizes so much of my discontent with the voices of opposition, and resistance, and correctitude. I refuse to engage, but of course that eliminates a lot of incipient conversations... not a bad trade-off, I think... and it does preserve some friendships.
That is the trade-off.
And I do try to be selective with it... family first and foremost, long time friends too ... others, not so much.
I bet that white woman lectured to in Youngstown by gillibrand didn’t vote for gillibrand and her white privilege.
Safe bet!
Thanks Max. This essay is nicely synchronized with my current re-read of Sowell's "Vision of the Annointed."
At one job, I learned a lesson about clarity in writing. Colleagues and I developed a novel protective coating. Our boss referred our good news to the in-house patent attorney, who decided to go ahead and apply for a US patent. We gave him our relevant records and a thorough, clear written explanation. When he sent back his draft patent application for review, we engineer-inventors were aghast. His draft was both dense and vague, leaving out key points. We went through round after round of revision with him but seemed to be getting nowhere. EUREKA MOMENT! We finally realized that, while a patent was supposed to describe the invention to the public, the company wanted potential competitors to be mixed up and unable to practice it properly themselves. Our lawyer wanted to get the patent approved with the least possible useful disclosure, and he succeeded.
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/e5/37/0c/c0481ed1e5237f/US4714632.pdf
In government, the legislators and bureaucrats want to conceal their stealing/treachery, so their written output has to be impossible for outsiders to understand or even want to read. In politics, candidates who despise their voters want them to think "he's one of us!" so they use profanity, wardrobe, and other cheap tricks to put that idea across.
Hillary "I don't feel no ways tired". and then there is Kamala...
H should have been tarred and feathered. K is just a poorly programmed industrial robot.
According to English rules against double negatives, that means she is tired.
Old riddle:
Q. What two positives make a negative?
A. Yeah, right
Love what you're doing here, love Orwell, the Beatles, etc...Louis XIV, as I was taught at the Lycée Français de NY, set the bar of fashion to be so high and so expensive and kept obsolescing ( is that a word? ) it in order to impoverish the nobility and keep them addicted, as you say, to being at his court rather than on their lands maintaining their independence. He figured out how to enslave them to be "politically correct." In other words, he was a great influencer! Thanks for the trip down memory lane....where everything old is new again.