The Times today draws our attention to the Queen’s English Society, an outfit that apparently wants to protect the citadel of our language from the barbarian hordes of teenage txters and the like. In its founder’s words: “Let’s set down a clear standard of what is good, correct, proper English. Let’s have a body to sit in judgment.”
Has the Times fallen victim to a cunning internet wind-up akin to the superb Yu Wan Mei website? Heaven help the English language if the Queen’s English Society is setting the clarity standards. Check out this text from the home page:
“Our language faces a number of challenges, as it becomes ever more widely used by people with ever less knowledge of it and respect for it.”
Or this humdinger of a sentence, which suffers from a condition that can only be described as ‘commaohrrea’
“The Queen’s English Society will always welcome new members who have some sympathy with our aims, but we also hope this website and, in particular, The English Academy, will benefit all who wish to improve their own use of the language and also those who teach English, professionally, or indeed, as parents.”
Give me a witty 140-character tweet or text message any day.