It has become just too much for me! I seem to continually notice people in forums or comments on the Internet using the word "to" when they obviously (to me) should use "too". Is this only obvious to me or is the word "too" falling into disuse.
Does it matter? I'm sure that nothing can be done about it but it suggests to me a literacy devolution. Surely (Don't call me Shirley?) this is not the first time in linguistic history that some homophones have fallen into disuse. Is it possible that with the prolific incorrect visual use on the words "too" and "to" that "too" will simply stop being used in a century or two, or to, or too?
Homophonic errors are a real bear of a problem -- but it's worse in French. 🙂
There's no evidence of the different /tu/ words becoming one. But when I start to see more errors in what I'm reading, I try to correct for that by changing my reading habits to include more higher-quality writing and less low-quality writing. It's not always possible, I know. Blocking all Google results from Yahoo Answers was a huge annoyance-avoider. Blocking comments on YouTube is another. This Chrome extension will block comments there and many other places. Reading more things like Lapham's Quarterly also provides relief.
These two sites do a very good job of aggregating high-quality writing:
These, too, can bring some of the best writing to your attention:
The Feature (formerly Give Me Something to Read)
I appreciate your reply. I feel relieved that it isn't just me. Of course I used to be terribly negligent of grammar use until I married a teacher (38 yrs ago) and after a couple of decades "something" finally sunk in.
You said, "There's no evidence of the different /tu/ words becoming one", but do you know of anything similar where the homophones really have disappeared? Just wondering...
Some words do change over time—but slowly, slowly. Words like "scuba", "laser" and "radar", which used to be spelled as acronyms ("SCUBA") are now treated as normal words. Words such as "through" and "bight" are no longer pronounced anything like they used to be, but their spelling (in English, at least) is retained. I've read that in a few words there has been a curious migration of the initial 'n', so that what used to be "a norange" is now spelled "an orange", and very few ever hear that it was ever otherwise.
But off-hand I can't think of a case where two homonyms have merged. I would guess that's because they still have separate meanings so their different spellings is useful. Your "to" and "too" is a good example; it'd be one thing if their meanings were so close that the distinction is difficult to remember, but enough careful writers are around to complain about their misuse that I agree with Grant: I don't see any sign that the distinction is going away.
What probably is happening is that the internet is making available to us the thoughts (so to speak) of a good many more writers, some of them pretty bad; so we're seeing a lot more careless writing. I don't think that will lead to the degradation of what is thought of as good writing. It might lead in the other direction, to greater emphasis on good writing and therefore to better writing in general. But I wouldn't bet on it.