The American Spectator

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John McGinnis br> Arlington, Texas /p> p> TONGUE TRIED br> Re: Reid Collins's Friends, Romans, Countrymen … : /p>

In "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" Reid Collins is hoeing a tough row, and asking us to hoe along with him. We all know that the weeds are well beyond containment now.

I have, as do many or most of the purportedly educated, my own pet peeves, such as the use of "most" -- meaning "nearly" -- where "almost" is required. I suspect, since I hadn't noticed this misuse before I moved to the South, that this derives from the colloquial, homey, very Southern or country "'most," which is forgivable in friendly speech. (Do note the presence of the humble apostrophe -- the least understood and most abused little mark in the world.) Now it appears regularly, even in Yankee print.

p>On another issue raised by Collins, I am SHOCKED to know that "schism" is to be pronounced "sizm." I acknowledge my own contribution to skizmophilia, but here justify it by noting that the word derives from the Indo-European root "skei," which passing via the Greeks would have come to us as something very like "skizm," had it not been softened up by the French. br> -- Jeffrey S. Erickson br> Davidson, North Carolina

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