RE: Letter: The English language needs to be preserved
I write to you about a travesty brought upon the English-speaking population within this very publication.
Yes, I’m talking about a letter sent in by a concerned student regarding the inclusion of “twerk” in Oxford English Dictionary’s online database and the subsequent “besmirching” of the English language.
While I will admit there has been a strange and sudden obsession surrounding the art of twerking as of late, it seems to me that the author has over-stepped his boundaries in taking his dislike of a popular dance style and expanding the issue on a global scale.
To condemn the inclusion of words such as “twerk,” “selfie,” and “FOMO” in the Oxford Dictionaries Online is also to condemn the Oxford Dictionaries Online. What this student does not seem to grasp is that Oxford Dictionaries Online is a descriptive database. Not a tool used to prescribe and correct the use of the English language.
This so-called “hallowed” dictionary is not held captive atop an ivory tower as the previous writer implied in his work. Rather, the purpose of these online dictionaries are to collect instances of spoken and written language and record trends regarding the way people, artists, etc. are using the language.
At an earlier time, yes, the Oxford English Dictionary was solely in hard copy and concerned itself primarily with the way Shakespeare, Yeats, and other high-society Brits manipulated the English language.
Now, however, with the expansion of the English language and the progression of popular culture, Oxford Online is more concerned with the way the Internet and artists use the language. Unfortunately some feel that rappers have a lesser command on the English language.
To put it simply, it sounds like our friend has a severe case of FOMO for a time period that has already come and gone. A time period when the almighty white man forced lingua-franca down the throats of people who couldn’t speak properly, and apparently still don’t have a command on their prestigious, standardized English language.
So don’t stand up to this “challenge” because that’s not what it is in the first place.
