> > Permissive dictionaries unwisely tolerate the omission of accent marks
> > in those words.
>
> Dictionary authorities (not just Webster's) do not agree with you, nor do I or
> any of the native English speakers I encounter.
What do you mean by "Webster's"? Many dictionaries are published
under that name or variants thereof.
> You can try to be prescriptivist with living languages,
Not for nothing do we speak of _orthography_. The prevailing
heterography has not improved English.
> but they will continue
> to evolve.
The evolution of _résumé_ into _resume_ (ambiguous), _resumé_
(incorrect), and even _resumè_ (godawful) was driven by laziness and
ignorance. You may take the low road if you wish, but I shall
take the high road. And I'll be in Scotland afore ye.
(By the way, I do not need a lecture on descriptive/prescriptive
linguistics.)
Scott Horne
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:48 EDT