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Last week Wordgirl had a post on one of her pet peeves—people who mispronounce or misuse words. She gave some examples that really got on her nerves and invited readers to do the same.

Much to my surprise, outraged Wordies and Grammar Nazis took over the comments section in waves of righteous indignation. Lord, there are a lot of people in the world who are Highly Irritated about the State of the English Language.

But I wasn’t one of them. Yes, I earned more than half my college credits in English and have a degree in communications. Yes, my entire professional career has been devoted to writing and to editing And yes, I even love reading nerdy grammar columns written by people like James Kilpatrick, but my interest in good grammar is outweighed by my interest in good writing. Good writing may or may not be grammatically perfect. Pay too much attention to grammar and not enough to tone, voice, color, and rhythm, and you’ll produce perfectly good prose that’s perfectly boring and frequently ignored.

Unlike the laws of math and physics, many of the laws of grammar change. Dictionaries are edited and style books are updated because each generation shapes the language. That’s why we don’t all speak like characters in Shakespeare’s plays. It’s the same reason I can be in a room with friends from England, Australia, and New Zealand and still not understand all that they're saying.

One of the things I love about language and usage is seeing how they evolve. Words take on new shades of meaning, slang emerges and retreats, and our culture influences how we speak, write, and communicate. A few weeks ago, Neil at Citizen of the Month joked that his blogger friends were a bunch of link whores, and I kept rolling “link whore” around in my head, secretly delighting in it and wondering how long the term would last.

As for pronunciation, I expect public figures and professional media to get it right, but I fully tolerate, and even enjoy, hearing variations on the norm or “incorrect” pronunciations. In most settings, I find mispronunciations endearing and interesting, quirks that tell a story about the speaker. Where have they lived? How were they raised? Where did they go to school? Having lived most of my life in the South, I love Southern accents, from slow drawls and Tidewater melodies to Texas twang. The “mistakes” people make flavor the conversation and often make me smile. Teachers and parents can correct pronunciation, but I think for one person to correct another in any other setting is rude.

One of Wordgirl’s commenters noted that a person may be very well read but not well spoken in terms of pronunciation. The more time you spend alone with books and not glued to the TV, the easier it is to create or imagine a pronunciation that’s one or more degrees off of the norm. There are many words I’m not sure how to pronounce because I’ve seen them in writing but not heard them spoken. It’s been 25 years since I lived in a house with network or cable TV. I get all my information from reading so forgive me if I mispronounce the names of celebrities or towns in Iraq.

So are you a Grammar Nazi or a diehard Wordie? Does the way words are used or spoken get on your nerves or fascinate you? Do you stifle the urge to correct others or let it roll? Are you self-conscious about your speaking or writing?

March 25, 2007