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| Dear friends,
Last week we sent out a simple survey to tens of thousands of A Way with Words listeners and fans. Our goal: to find out your consensus on the state of the English language: negative, positive or neutral? We said we’d wait a few weeks to reveal the results. But why wait? We have an answer!
That makes us so happy! Here’s why: our primary goal has been to change the way our listeners — you included — talk and think about language, including grammar, dialect, new words, and more. We’re trying to get you to:
If that sounds like something you can get behind (and we know it is — we have the poll results now!) add your voice to ours by giving to support the program today. Let’s see if, together, we can convince the 28% who voted “neutral” or “negative” in the survey that there’s no reason to worry — English is on a great path and we’ll show you the way. Best wishes,
Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, |
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The results were very positive! Seventy-two percent positive! That’s great! That means a large majority of you clicked on the button for “The English language has wonderful diversity! We should find delight in and learn more about its ever-changing features.”
Further reading
Colette Hiller’s Colossal Words for Kids: 75 Tremendous Words: Neatly Defined to Stick in the Mind (Bookshop|Amazon) uses clever rhymes to help children learn big, fun-to-say words like magnanimous, discombobulated, and acquiesce. This...
She sells seashells by the seashore. Who is the she in this tongue twister? Some claim it’s the young Mary Anning, who went on to become a famous 19th-century British paleontologist. Dubious perhaps, but the story of her rise from seaside...