Even prescribed languages evolve. I am reminded of a friend who was recently in France and was being given a hard time because he knew no French and was trying to get the locals to speak to him in English - unfortunately, he had just made the mistake of using the word "cool" to describe something, and the youths he was interacting with were under the impression that "cool" was a French word...hence, my friend was lying and must actually know French. -Alexis On Thu, 28 Jun 2007, Peter Timusk wrote: ::Forgive me if I am wrong but French is a prescribed language. :: :: :: ::Peter Timusk, :: ::On 28-Jun-07, at 5:22 PM, Derek McMillan wrote: :: ::> Actually I think calling a URL "earl" is rather endearing. ::> ::> None of the top "annoying" neologisms annoy me however. It's a free ::> country, people will develop the language the way they find most ::> convenient and we can't lay down what words will or will not become ::> current. Tell pupils a particular turn of phrase particularly ::> annoys you ::> and you are asking to hear it at every turn. ::> ::> McDonalds know this to their cost. They have tried to have the term ::> McJob (a low-paid non-union job) removed from the Oxford English ::> Dictionary (and forced their employees to circulate petitions). They ::> only attracted adverse publicity and ridicule for their pains. ::> ::> + -------- redheadedstepchild.org ------- +