Am I becoming a snob or a grumpy old man? Probably, yes!!

You do have a point here and I don't like hearing things like 'bottling it'
even though it does have a distinct meaning.

Trouble is, the English language is one of the few that isn't 'owned' by
anything or anybody, therefore is free to change and adapt in an almost
random and seemingly chaotic way. That is why it has dropped unnecessary and
illogical complications like genderisation of nouns and accented vowels
which exist in other languages, especially Latin based ones. It is this
freedom that has allowed phrasal verbs to develop, which has got to be one
of the best inventions a language can have and why English is so poetic.

Many governments try to control a language as if it is their right to do so
in a kind of dictatorial way, this leads to strange complexities and
anomalies which would normally die out by their own accord. It also stifles
a language preventing it to develop to the constantly changing
social/environmental conditions we live in. French, German and the
Portuguese languages have had certain 'controls' imposed on them in recent
times, which is bad thing and thankfully has never happened to English.
________________
Nick G
Otter Valley, Devon
83 m amsl
http://www.ottervalley.co.uk