John Evelyn proposes an English Academy (20-6-1665)
From
Ross Clark@21:1/5 to
All on Fri Jun 21 21:49:01 2024
Well actually, a number of members of the Royal Society had formed a
committee to discuss "the improvement of the English tongue". The
Académie Française already existed (1635), and was an obvious model to consider. Evelyn was part of the group, but couldn't attend their
Tuesday afternoon meetings; so he wrote up his ideas in a letter to the chairman, bearing this date.
He thought that some body ought to lay down rules for grammar, improve
the spelling system, give guidance on pronunciation, and oversee the development of the vocabulary. It all sounds a little like 20th-century "language planning" proposals. At any rate, it came to nothing in
Evelyn's lifetime. We saw Swift making a similar proposal half a century
later (see 22 February). But still no English Academy.
Evelyn is primarily remembered as a diarist. He was roughly a
contemporary of Pepys (also lived through the Plague and the Fire), but
kept at it for longer (1640-1706, though not every day).
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