From Where I Sit

December 10, 2008

by: Jim Birchard

I don't know what to think.
the world police at the Oxford Junior Dictionary have driven a stake into the heart of the Canadian identity by eliminating from that publication some of the very words that make us Canadian.
 the publisher of the Oxford Junior Dictionary has sent words like ``beaver'' and ``dandelion'' the way of the dodo bird.
    In the latest version of its ten-thousand-word dictionary for schoolchildren, Oxford University Press has cut nature terms such as heron, magpie, otter, acorn, clover, ivy, sycamore, willow and blackberry.
Terms substituted in their place are more in line with the electronic Blackberry, like blog, MP3 player, voicemail and broadband.
and its not only people concerned that young people connect with nature who are upset with the folks at Oxford.....so to will be some Christians....as the phrases like  nun, monk, saint, disciple, psalm and chapel.
In a word.....such a move is upsetting  to say the least.
The folks at Oxford should take a page from their own dictionary and check out the word reinstate for those truly now outcast Canadian words.

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Posted: 2009-01-18 18:02:50