Getting It Right, Linguistically

OF THE MILLION OR SO words in the highly eclectic much evolved English language, there are some which merit special attention, and it is a shame that they are often misused, or altogether neglected. My father once commented that he considered it a shame that the word "gay" had been appropriated by the homosexual community, people he called "queers", because he asserted that the perfectly fine word had been ruined, somehow. He didn't specify how, but my assumption is that since he was conservative, heavily biased against gay folks, he wanted the word 'gay" to mean only "happy". Well, I could not've disagreed more. (My father and I often disagreed, but still loved each other. Oh, that we could all do that). The essential fact about words is that they acquire cannotations over time, as well as their stone engraved denotations, and, well, no mater what term we use to describe homosexuals, the word inevitably becomes associated with negative, hateful overtones, owing to the pervasive hatred of gay folks by conservatives, especially Christians.(to hate the sin and love the sinner is a false, cowardly concept, intended only to preserve a hater's false sense of decency and self respect. We are what we do, at least in part, after all.) Similarly, the words "moron", "idiot", and "imbecile" once upon a time were formal medical terms describing people with cognitive impairments,and were not nearly as pejorative as they are today. Alas, "moron" became "retarded", retarded became "mentally handicapped", mentally handicapped became "mentally disabled', and, most recently mentally disabled has become "cognitively impaired", or whatever, all on account of the tendency to "demonize" ("demonize" is a currently very popular word, as is "amazing") any and all descriptors pertaining to people who are widely despised or ridiculed. For the moment,my pet peeve is our current national obsession, or habit if you will, of misusing the word "gubernatorial", be replacing it with ""gubenatorial". As a nation, we the people, and we the media, have either decided collectively or accidently to leave out the "R", which can be seen as politically incorrect ant-R discrimination. Goober nuh tor ee ul, has thus become gooben na tor ee ul. During the recent campaign season, this was obvious, and everyone, yes everyone, was doing it wrong. I have never seen any pronunciation guide indicating that the "R" is silent, but society has seemingly decided that indeed it is.