Roy White, of Naseby Drive, Heathfield, writes: br>The headline correspondent on the Letters page in the MDA dated September 9 must have, possessing such a grand name, a fine degree of education and refinement, and we should take his contribution seriously. br>I dare say his position will get majority support because the default position of most non-Americans about the USA is one of knee-jerk anti-Americanism. My attitude is that I judge every subject on its merits.br>'Awesome' is overused to the point of being flogged to death, even, to borrow Mr Smith's erudition: used 'Ad nauseam'. It's just another fad. I remember being admonished by my sister in the 1950s for describing everything better than barely tolerable as 't'riffic'. Rather like Del Boy Trotter, but then we were both children of 50s south London.br>Mr Smith gives examples of words borrowed from other languages. Of course the reality is much more subtle and much more substantial than a few borrowed words. The whole language is descended from a mixing of Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) and Norman French (mostly from Vulgar Latin), and from Church Latin and a host of other languages which had influence from time to time.br>Mr Smith's gratuitous rudeness towards the Australians in drawing attention to the very few of their forebears who were transported criminals does nothing for his argument; it is true emigration to Australia was largely working class, but it has not stopped them from being rather good at the 'elite's' sports of tennis, golf and rugby union.br>Americans don't open their mouths properly? Mr Smith continues to dazzle us with his perception. With what physical failing does he account for the 'anyfink', rather than 'anything' that it is just one example of estuary English that has all but obliterated English rural accents from Camborne to Colchester?br>I have tried to find the original English pronunciation of 'schedule'; it seems to have been 'sedule' without 'SH' or 'SK'. There is some logic for 'skedule', seeing as it is 'skool', but does it really matter? As long as you are understood it does not. br>By the way I googled that query – another heinous crime making a verb from a noun, and a proper noun at that.br>There are good practical reasons for the shorthand that is 'textspeak', and it is a further example that English is a vibrantly alive language; thank God there is no equivalent of the Acadamie Francaise telling us how to speak and what words to use – there is enough nannying by the state without that.

THIS AND OTHER LETTERS IN OUR DIGITAL EDITION