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Dennis Baron

@drgrammar.bsky.social

490 followers 140 following 510 posts

I write about language and … language and law (free speech and regulation); gender (pronouns!); tech (how tech affects readers and writers); language reform; and language policing. All from a historical perspective.

Dennis Baron is a professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the technologies of communication; language legislation and linguistic rights; language reform; gender issues in language; language standards and minority languages and dialects; English usage; and the history and present state of the English language. .. more

Communication & Media Studies 41%

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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 17h

Now that I've had time to check here's what I wrote back in 1990. BTW, in a conference talk I gave about this in the 1980s, session chair John Algeo, who was then editor of American Speech, changed my title from "A historic..." to "An historic." Which only goes to show how entrenched this was.

The rule, according to Josephine Turck Baker (1904), requires an rather than a before a word beginning with an h that is pronounced, if the initial syllable of that word is unaccented: for example, an historic, but a history. The practice, which Baker favors, dates from a time when the initial h of words borrowed from Latin and French was always silent. However for most of these words aspiration has long since been restored, rendering an phonetically inappropriate. As early as 1882 Alfred Ayres opposes this use of an as obsolete. Henry Fowler (1926) agrees, calling an historic pedantic. Evans and Evans (1957) label the usage archaic; Theodore Bernstein (1965) claims it is improper on both sides of the Atlantic; and Morris and Morris (1975) find it one of the commonest mistakes in English today. Yet the form, perceived by many to be stylish, if not mandatory, persists despite requests from the usage critics that we relax our guard. Surveying a panel of teachers, writers, business executives, and linguists, the linguist Sterling Leonard (1932) reports an historical ranked as the most correct of two hundred thirty examples of disputed usage. Even Jimmy Breslin, whose journalism and fiction generally reveal a keen ear for colloquial English, writes jarringly in a recent novel of “an Hasidic Jew.” (1982, 199)

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 1d

he may have even written "an Chasidic Jew"

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 1d

Was it Jimmy Breslin in The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight who wrote the phrase "an Hasidic Jew"?

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 7d

The euro sausage strikes again...

European Parliament to rule that anything called a sausage, burger, or cutlet must contain meat. No veggie sausages.

Jim Hacker complains in 1984 episode of Yes, Prime Minister, the the EU will standardize the eurosausage, making the British banger illegal.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 12d

It's that old marketplace of ideas, where the shopkeeper always has a thumb on the scale.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 14d

5 across No visa for you, Paul.

Guardian cryptic crossword clue reads "Stupid effin' old man's twittering nonsense?" Answer is covfefe

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 16d

not to mention the 1% of atheists who are expecting him any minute. but sure. whatever.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 20d

Waiting to see if last night's rain means fish might be back ....

A blue heron in a small stream

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 22d

That's ok, 🐝, I can wait.

New York Times Spelling Bee says godot is not a word.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 27d

Xword first ran in the New York Times on July 23, 1951, p. 15. h/t Ben Zimmer.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 27d

This was the S F Chronicle June 22 1955

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 27d

And this earlier crossword, from the Brooklyn Eagle in 1930, asks readers for three, count 'em, three, genderless pronouns.

crossword puzzle from the Brooklyn Eagle, 1930

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 27d

Thon was coined by C.C. Converse as early as 1858 and in use since it was publicized in 1884. Although well past its prime, thon did have advocates through the 1970s. The puzzle is credited to the NY Times but did not run on that day, June 22, or on the day before.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 27d

Pronouns in the news, 1955 edition: The clue for 27 across, "proposed third-person genderless pronoun," assumes that at least some solvers will be familiar with "thon."

A crossword puzzle June 22, 1995.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 29d

🐝 the speardanes would like a word...

new york times spelling bee says hwaet is not a word.

opening of Beowulf: hwæt we gardena...

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 11

Pronouns in the news, 1869 edition: San Francisco Woman Suffrage Society votes on use of generic "she" to refer to men who join. When that proposal failed, the group settled on "he or she." SF Chronicle, Dec. 26, p. 1.

The amendment proposed was, that wherever the word "she" occurred in this instrument, it should be construed to mean jointly "he or she." Thus: did a man happen to become President, Secretary or other officer of the band, it would be proper to term him "she," with a profound indifference and contempt for the nature of his sex.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 10

A particularly photogenic coffee at Plein Air Café

mostly finished cappuccino.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 10

Me, on free speech, the flag burning ban, and, oh, did sombody say pronouns? scholarscircle.org

The Scholars' Circle

Insight into Today's Most Pressing Issues

scholarscircle.org

Reposted by Dennis Baron

Cambridge University Press - Linguistics @cambup-linguistics.cambridge.org · Sep 8

"Uses a variety of research methods to demonstrate how policies that concern language status are inseparable from economics, race, and identity politics."

Making English Official by Katherine S. Flowers | Out Now & #OpenAcccess

https://cup.org/4m0J21C

#LangSky 🐦🐦 🗺️ #Linguistics

Aerial photograph of two bridges over a body of water

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 4

My review of King & Conqueror: Wait for the tapestry.

Bayeux Tapestry panel: harold interfectus est

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 3

even without bollocks!

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 2

What this refers to: blogs.illinois.edu/view/25/1505...; an earlier version appeared in the Washington Post in 1996: www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opin...

Don’t Make English Official, Ban It Instead

blogs.illinois.edu

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 2

I get better hate mail than you do.

Reader fails to identify satire and goes on a diatribe in defense of English.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Aug 31

Donald Trump doesn’t want non-English-speakers to assimilate. He just wants them gone. First he declared English official. Then his Dept. of Ed dropped support for English language learners. What's next for them? A ticket to Rwanda?
read about it here:
weboflanguage.substack.com/p/donald-tru...

Donald Trump doesn’t want non-English-speakers to assimilate.

He just wants them gone.

weboflanguage.substack.com

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Aug 27

Trying a substack to see if gets more traffic than a blog:

We, as Concerned Legal Lexicographers, submit this declaration in an attempt to answer the question, Is a sandwich a weapon? And if so, is it protected by the Constitution?

weboflanguage.substack.com/p/is-a-sandw...

Is a sandwich a weapon?

If so, is it protected by the Constitution?

weboflanguage.substack.com

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Aug 20

Plus according to Scalia's view if a sandwich is a weapon. according to the Cunningham definition, then like the handgun it is constitutionally protected.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Aug 20

Plus many of the Framers immediately disagreed about the meaning of the document they had just created!

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Aug 20

Ordinary citizen? The Constitution is written at a 15th-grade reading level according to the Flesch-Kincaid scale. Yes there are problems with such scales. The NCES ranks most adult Americans today at something like 7th grade (grade levels are no longer used to measure literacy).

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Aug 19

Is a sandwich a weapon enjoying Second Amendment protection? Find out now on the Web of Language:

bit.ly/4lwuF4H

Is a sandwich a weapon?

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Aug 16

And so we must conclude that yes, a sandwich may indeed be a weapon. Now, as to the question of intent, or mens rea...