but is that only because
People have been getting it wrong for so long that it has become recognised as an alternative spelling?
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Wed 5 Jan 2011, 19:28, 1 reply)

Three points:
1) We speak English, not Latin. Otherwise we'd have to use a different ending for motion towards, in the subjunctive case or on a wet Wednesday, and all the other pointless inflections that our language has, thankfully, been abandoning for some centuries now.

2) "Wrong" implies that there is a prescriptive "Right" way. A dubious concept, at best, because:

3) That's how language evolves

For example, the fruit we call an "Orange" was originally a "Norange" -- from the Spanish word. "A Norange" sounded to most people like "An Orange", so that's what it became. By your argument, "An Orange" is Wrong.

Similarly, "Connection" used to be spelled "Connexion", but it was more consistent and simpler to use "Connect" + "ion".

Here endeth the lesson.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Thu 6 Jan 2011, 9:35, closed)