Hacker News Reader

All human languages have redundancy, ambiguity, inconsistencies, etc. English isn’t special in this regard.

> Should be removed

Language is an emergent social phenomenon, not something anyone really controls or directs, so what “should” be done with it is a bit meaningless.

View on HN

Of course. My argument was intended more of a thought exercise. Sorry about that. I should admit that I saw humour in the parent comment. But, it can be tough to tell sometimes online. Admittedly, it also depends on the reader's state of mind.

Doesn’t France have their like, organization which defines what officially valid french is?

In theory yes, but their decisions have virtually zero influence on real-world speech.

It used to be, but nowadays the organization only claims to "observe" how the language evolves instead of deciding what’s valid and what’s not. Also, France doesn’t have the monopoly of French: 80% of French speakers are outside France; the largest French-speaking city of the world is Kinshasa, in Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com