Dennis Baron

@drgrammar.bsky.social

500 followers 140 following 530 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.

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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%

Philosophy 14%

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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 1d

Here, I fixed it for you: The near extinction of copy editors continues to have severe consequences.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 1d

"An Eurasian..."?

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 1d

Snow day means snow globe back yard.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 3d

To lose the crown jewels may be regarded as a misfortune. But to lose a year's worth of snails ...

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 9d

Revised and re-upping this post on "The second-oldest neopronoun, coined in 1849: ne, nis, and nim" bit.ly/475S3Cr

The second-oldest neopronoun, coined in 1849: ne, nis, and nim

bit.ly

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 12d

Celebrating the publication of Merriam-Webster's 12th Collegiate, I am reminded of this important First Amendment hypothetiical:

Can a baker refuse to bake a dictionary cake on religious grounds if they have a deeply-held belief that dictionaries are woke tools of the devil?

Dictionary cake celebrating Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 12th edition

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 16d

So bankbooks are obsolete, 🐝?

New York Times Spelling Bee says bankbook is not a word

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 24d

The question is moot.

Washington Post article headline "jury finds d. c. sandwich guy not guilty of assaulting officer.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 25d

With the assault-by-sub-sandwich trial in progress here's a re-up of my post, "Is a sandwich a weapon? And if so, does it enjoy constitutional protection?" blogs.illinois.edu/view/25

Is a sandwich a weapon? And if so, does it enjoy constitutional protection?

blogs.illinois.edu

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 26d

Plus I am anxious about the future.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 26d

otoh

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 26d

Cry the spilt milk. Le Figaro quiz testing the equivalence of English and French idioms, great but maybe first get the English right?

Que signifie l’expression «to cry the spilt milk» (Pleurer sur le lait renversé) ?
Être anxieux pour l’avenir
Mélanger deux choses incompatibles
Pleurer sur pas grand chose

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 27d

Two views of the University of Chicago . . .

The moon nearing fullness beside the Theological Seminary Tower at the University of Chicago

A Lyft bike at the University of Chicago with the message "deport ice"

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 29d

It's the stuff concrete poems are made from.

New York times spelling bee says poetite is not in the word list

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Oct 23

Video capture of the Böcker Agilo descending with two thieves and the loot.

The lift descending with 2 of the thieves and their loot.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Oct 22

The Böcker Agilo is the perfect gift for the jewel thieves on your list.

Wry ad promoting the Böcker Agilo "when you have to go fast" it can move 400 kilos of treasure 40 metres per minute.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Oct 16

beats me why the 🐝 won't accept eocene.

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Oct 14

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 · Oct 14

he may have even written "an Chasidic Jew"

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Oct 14

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

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Oct 7

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 · Oct 3

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

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Oct 1

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 · Sep 29

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

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 24

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

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 22

That's ok, 🐝, I can wait.

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

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 17

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

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 17

This was the S F Chronicle June 22 1955

Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · Sep 17

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 · Sep 17

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.

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