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.

Academics don't normally manage to alter people's way of thinking through their strength of argument.

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.

Research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you have to know how to manipulate language.

Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly.

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

Language changes and moves in a different direction evolving all the time. Where a lot of people see deterioration, I see expressive development