Inflexibility spells trouble

Re “There’s never a last word on spelling,” Opinion, May 27

Inflexible wordsmiths neglect to take into account that the English language is constantly evolving and changing with the times. It is archaic that words such as “night” and “light” are still spelled as they were when they were pronounced with no silent letters.

English of the 1950s and 1960s is somewhat different from newly evolving language of today. The language of teens eludes many older people, even though much of it will become commonplace and proper.

In language, as in all things, change is unavoidable.

Milt Rouse

Dana Point

The writer is a high school English teacher.

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Indeed, English spelling wasn’t standardized in the 17th century; this was a reason Shakespeare often “misspelled” his own name.

I recall reading in college that authors including Sir Thomas More and Niccolo Machiavelli, and their period translators, would spell the same words differently, sometimes on the same page, just to show how learned they were.

Ronald Webster

Long Beach

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Samuel Johnson didn’t want to be corrected by a critiC.

Milt Waxman

Los Angeles