NP Re: Losing Languages--Sorta P-related

[Jeremy Osner]

davemarc wrote:

> In Shorris's world, wouldn't the early,
> less-inclusive dictionaries have frozen the language's growth on the spot?

[Wading into unfamiliar territory] I am not sure of this, but I believe the
first English dictionaries did have that effect, greatly slowing the rate of
change in the written language by standardizing spellings. Thus we have
"thought" and "knee", not to mention the silent "e".

Jeremy