Taking on the grammar fascists

Nicholas Waters with his new book Eats, Roots and Leaves.

16 November 2006 08:51

An English lecturer from the city is waging war on grammar fascists who he says are insistent on upholding archaic rules about our country's mother tongue.

He believes English is under attack - not from text messaging, email or rap but from grammar-obsessed bores who want to stop the language moving into the 21st century.

Nicholas Waters said his new book was the antidote to Lynne Truss's bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves and he is firmly against Truss's book's subtitle, The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.

Truss's book highlighted the shoddy use of language and reminded people about the importance of grammar in the English language.

But Mr Waters, who is 48 and has a 17-year-old daughter, has hit back at this approach in his newly penned book Eats, Roots and Leaves. And he has used examples from Norfolk to illustrate how we should celebrate the idiosyncrasies in our language.

Mr Waters, who is a lecturer on English Language in Latvia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and translates Scandinavian documents, said: “I would describe my book as a plea for people to be tolerant with other people's use of English. We have to get used to the idea that change in language is inevitable. Language should be inclusive not exclusive and people should not use language as a tool to put other people down

“The language that is used today is not the language we used 50 years ago and will not be the language used in 50 years time.”

He uses some examples from the city to highlight how people should celebrate language change rather than have, what he believes to be, pointless quarrels about the “proper” use of language, split infinitives, the correct use of the apostrophe and so on.

His examples include how a sign by city pub the Ribs of Beef spelt lager as it sounds, “larger”, and how linguistic pedants may argue the acronym of Norwich City Council's Special Waste Action Team (SWAT) actually came from American police jargon meaning Strategic Weapons Assault Team.

Mr Waters will travel around the country with a stand-up comedy routine to launch his book and his debut performance is in Norwich at the Norwich Arts Centre on Thursday, December 21 at 8pm.

Tickets cost £5. To book call (01603) 660352.



An excerpt from Eats, Roots and Leaves:

“In the Norwich branch of the travel agent Thomas Cook there was a hand-written sign that said “500 Euro bills, special rate 1.405.” A bill is a form of invoice stating how much you have to pay for say electricity, gas or the telephone. British people have notes in their wallets and purses irrespective of the country of origin (with respect, naturally, to the mighty Yankee dollar).

There is a rapid response team employed by Norwich City Council. When someone calls the office to complain about litter in the streets, their task is to immediately go clear it up. On the side of the vehicles is the legend SWAT. This is the SWAT team. But has anyone considered what the acronym SWAT means? Borrowed from American police jargon (no doubt endless police series on TV), SWAT means Strategic Weapons Assault Team. In LA the SWAT team dressed in flak jackets and carrying automatic weapons would race to the scene of a bank robbery. In Norwich they hurry as fast a diesel-powered Ford Transit will allow and get out their brushes and shovels!”



Eats, Roots and Leaves is available now priced £7.99. For more information visit www.eatsroots and leaves.co.uk

Do you have story to tell? Call reporter Emma Knights on 01603 772326 or visit emma.knights@archant.co.uk

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