View Message

Computers make life so much easier. The ongoing Collins dictionary project with Birmingham University, called Cobuild, has a massive database of current English - spoken, written, broadcast - which is being used for some truly excellent dictionaries for second-language users; they give words a star rating according to frequency of usage, so 'food' gets five stars (the maximum) and 'foodstuff' only one. So helpful!

---

To my sorrow, they don't do given names. Maybe some day?

---

Here in South Africa we have an academy for the Afrikaans language, but not for English or any of the other indigenous languages. It's loosening up considerably, becoming more usage-based, but in the past it was ludicrously prescriptive.