Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices.

Anyone interested in language ends up writing about the sociological issues around it.

Texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster.

Swearing makes an excellent relief mechanism

Word books traditionally focus on unusual and quirky items. They tend to ignore the words that provide the skeleton of the language, without which it would fall apart, such as 'and' and 'what,' or words that provide structure to our conversation, such as 'hello.

The story of English spelling is the story of thousands of people - some well-known, most totally unknown - who left a permanent linguistic fingerprint on our orthography.

Ever since the arrival of printing - thought to be the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into people's minds - people have been arguing that new technology would have disastrous consequences for language.