Back to blogging in plain language - maybe

I have taken a bit of a break from blogging recently as anyone who is a regular reader here will have noted. My main reason has simply been lack of time. With far too much going on something had to give and in this case it was my regular blog posting.

My regular reading of a number of other blogs also went by the wayside for a few weeks as well so I am looking forward to catching up with whats been going on with everyone elses blogs.

At work we are having a considerable push towards trying to use plain language more in all our communications. I wouldn't claim that this blog has always been a champion of the "Plain English" approach to writing. In its most extreme form the champions of Plain English appear to decry the use of any word over three syllables that doesn't have Anglo-Saxon roots.

Personally I love the richness of the English language and I think it would be a shame if we avoided the use of a large part of our linguistic heritage. Words which often have their roots in Latin and Greek are for example an important part of the English language and add to its expressiveness.

Nevertheless I can see the sense in much of the push towards the use of Plain English - or plain language for those Scots who aren't comfortable with the fact that the language they speak is English.

One of my resolutions as I return to more active blogging is that I am going to watch my language but I am certainly not going to to eschew the use of the occassional less familiar word though.

And there's a case in point. Eschew. Do you know the roots of that word? I didn't so I looked it up. I suspected that it probably has a Latin or French root and so is one of those Frenchified fancy words that I really should be avoiding if I am going to use a plain English ( sorry - plain language) approach.

But hang on. Eschew is from Middle English. Yes, it turns out that it's a good old Anglo-Saxon word and the original Middle English version seems to have been eschewen.

I would be interested to hear what any readers think about the drive for Plain English.