All this delight in the non-uniformity of English is missing entirely the terrible beauty of the language. Terrible, because it requires great exposure and attention to be able to use well; but beautifl in its capacity for nuances, shades of meaning, and the wealth of varying human experiences it can capture and relay.

The trick is to understand the provenance of the different usages and forms. Yiddish injected great color and vivacity into the language, but its shades of form and meaning make no sense if you are expecting High German or Romance configurations in your words. The fact that two entirely different channels of meaning (for a random example, "band" as a retaining ring and as an ensemble of musicians) can over time evolve into one form should be perfectly natural to one who knows how usages evolve. The fact that colloquialisms like "burn down" and "burn up" an end up in circulation at the same time is cause for rejoicing, not declamation of the irrationality of the language.

Language reflects the color, passion, sensibilities and challenges of those who live with it. So it only gets purely rational in some rare areas of engineering and science; anywhere else, and the demand for consistency would be a bane and a chokehold on the bouquet of rich cognitive realms which language maps for us. The lack of uniformity, puzzling as all Hades to an outsider, is part of the wealth, and can be quickly shared with a little study.

My position on the issue, therefore, is sod off and let her fly.



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