Written English is in danger, but not necessarily for the reasons you assume. Warring parties of grammarians, teachers, literacy activists, and politicians are addressing widespread linguistic changes by debating the risks and rewards of the language’s inevitable evolution. And yet, shifting conventions — whether perceived as beneficial or detrimental — don’t actually herald a literary apocalypse. Rather, the threat lies in the misapprehended implication that language and its written rules are static entities that can be regulated in tangible ways.
