Quote:
Originally Posted by matt
David... would that I could. However, given time machines have yet to be invented, I'll let that go straight through to the keeper.
The difference here, I believe, is that people are advocating we allow people who ostensibly speak the same language in the same era (ie 2007, 21C) to spell words however they like. So, we will see all manner of spelling and interpretation across people of the same cultural group and era.
Let's not bother bringing the 1800s into this debate. Although I understand the point you are making  Language is an organic creature, and yes, it changes over time.
At this moment in time... we have this thing called a dictionary and a language which, whether we like it or not, involves a large degree of agreement in terms of structure and definition at any given moment in time.
This new push is to do away with that formalised, agreed way of spelling words and constructing sentences etc etc |
Yup yup yup. Language does evolve, but that evolution is officially ratified by its inclusion in the good 'ol Macquarie Dictionary as it goes. Given that, an 1800 dictionary was good for their time period - as is the one you'd go buy at a book store today for ours.