Sur – Ai right in risponce tu ye rtickle on Prerfesser Horrorbin’s aideeaz on ‘kerekt’ spellin (Oxfordshire Limited Edition, June 2013).

It iznt kwait klere frum ye artickull weather ye prerfessor iz beein sumhaough priskriptiv. Hiztorickli, ar langwidge haznt serbmitid tu priskripshn.

It iz, rarva, subjikt tu ye phawsiz ov natshral silekshn; eye ee, kneeolojisms, weather werdz, fraziz, metaphors nd similiz, awe, indid, orlternativ spellins, arize (we downt orlweiz no hough) nd r testid bai yoos: thei servaiv, faw a taim aw purrminentli; aw thei dikay nd xpaia.

Teik ‘impact’. Ye noughn haz myuteitid az a vurb* nd iz soupaseedin ‘affect’. Similully, ye adgiktiv ‘cool’ seams ta have itz routes whell istablishd. Nd aiv noetisd a komn grermatackle myuteishn, az scene in: ‘I would have given him your news, if I would have seen him.’

It iz maw nd mor ripleising: ‘…, if I had seen him.’ Ai fooly igspekt mowst ov ye werdz in mai letta, wiv there spellins, ta bee currant in ten yerz taim; aw not. Yoars faythfli.

Jaycee Higgens, Oxford

Etymologically the associated verb is, strictly, impinge.