Everyone has his or her own pet peeves about the English language. Some dont' have any at all. I've written about this before, and I'm sure the subject will come up again. Today's pet peeve is something I happened upon while surfing the Internet. This site states the word origin and pronunciation of the word "sherbet". I've never pronounced the "r" to make it "sherbert". I don't know why. It always bothered me when people did it when clearly there is no second "r" in the spelling. Beyond this example, I despise it when it becomes acceptable English when people mangle a language rule long enough that it just becomes the rule. I mean, what's the point of having grammar when, if we wait long enough, the rule will become obsolete if enough people ignore it?
That said, I will continue to create my own words and make words that are commonly nouns into verbs. I will occasionally, if I can't help it, end my sentences with prepositions. However, I will stick to my guns and never use shorthand or slang when text messaging. I will never use a number instead of an actual word. And I will never, never say the word "sherbert".
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