On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:43:18 -0500, WitchyStitcher
wrote:

It's the pronunciations that get to me. I have been stressing to my
students that if they pronounce words correctly, they will be more
likely to spell them correctly.

Then I walked into a 5th grade classroom where the teacher had written
the date as Valentines Day, Febuary 14, 2007.



snip

This is an interesting subject albeit OT. However, how do you address
the differences with pronunciation between regions? Who determines
what is correct and incorrect? How do you account for the very
significant differences or, more correctly, changes in the meaning of
words, take 'gay' for example or 'cool'.

The big strength of the English language and no doubt other languages
is they change through common usage to reflect the needs of the users
and pressures of the time. While I agree with everyone on the
irritation of mispronunciation, bad grammar, mangled use of words, I'm
afraid this is the result of working in a 'living' and 'dynamic'
language.