Academy of English

There has always been criticism in the press of the declining quality of the English language, from ‘text’ speak’ to the slang terms the younger generation use to talk to each other.

Now, purists of the English language want to set up an Academy of English in an effort to preserve the language from degradation. The Queen’s English Society has argued for this for some time, and they now hope to win official recognition or even a Royal Charter for their academy.

The society says “Other languages, French and Spanish for example, have supreme authorities that try, while moving with the times, to define what is good and acceptable usage and what is not. They do not stop the language from changing over the years, but they do provide a measure of linguistic discipline and try to retain valid and useful new terms, while rejecting passing fads. “English has never had any such academy. The 21st century is a bit late to start one ... but precisely because our language is so widespread — and also because there has been a dreadful devaluation and deterioration of education in our hectic, modern, digitalised world — we do desperately need some form of moderating body to set an accepted standard of good English.”

Those who oppose the measure introduced in other countries say that all it has served to do is prevent the language from expanding, causing it to be stuck in a rut where new words cannot be officially introduced. Jack Bovill, chairman of the Spelling Society argued against the Academy in The Times last week “The creation of an academy will probably run the same risk as the French equivalent, whose authorities realised that French could die out if it didn’t adapt. The Académie Française recently published 6,000 variant spellings. Language has to adapt to survive. The question is, do you do it deliberately or leave it to chance? While the QES may value what is around today, does it value what was around 100 years ago? It is very well meaning but caught in a bind”

In the United Kingdom new words are added every year to the Oxford English Dictionary and it this flexibility that allows are language to grow, with words from other languages frequently being introduced. Language has always evolved by itself and has changed beyond recognition over the centuries, the resultant richness of English and its dominance in a globalised world is testament to this. Who are we to start interfering in the process now?