This is how descriptivists try to cope with the fact that they’re academics who claim that some random guy who has never seen a dictionary knows better than academics do.
Even descriptivists accept there has to be some degree of balance. Yes, language evolves, that doesn’t mean I can start calling my shoes bhurghs and expect anyone to know what I’m talking about.
But if it catches on…
Except there’s quite a few descriptivists online that take that very stance.
Tell me this, why don’t “but” and “put” sound similar?
What about “height” and “weight”, what’s the rule here? And what makes a letter silent in a word? If any of these rules have exceptions, then why are there exceptions?
They are “descriptives” that’s literally in the name. Mocking them is equivalent to mocking historians for only knowing the past and not being able to predict the future.
