The Adventure of English: Important People

Swift hated people shortening and abbreviating words. He preferred Latin and Greek because they never changed. Swift wanted to save the English language by never letting it change. He wanted to create an academy to protect English from change and slang and to make sure everyone spoke it correctly. He believed that only Classical English would endure. His plans for the academy were ruined when the German king, who neither spoke nor cared about English, took power.

Dr. Samuel Johnson was next with his idea for the dictionary. He finished it in seven years but it was far from complete. He left out words he couldn't understand, proper nouns, words in law and medicine, and included old words written by important people even if they weren't in use anymore.

William Cobbet taught himself grammar rules to be able to move up in class. He thought the only way to move up in society was writing correctly, and once you did that you would speak correctly as well. 

Thomas Sheraton took up the role of National Elocutionist and made a book about how to speak and write correctly, including how to pronounce words correctly. 

Robert Burns published a book of poems specifically in the Scottish dialect and gave pride to the Scottish people and their way of speech. 

William Wordsworth began to write poetry as it moved from specifically work of the upper class to romantic and revolutionary language. He felt that poetry should be written in a language that people actually used. But he felt that poetry should not be composed of simple language. 

Jane Austen helped the novel acquire legitimacy in the intellectual world with the wit and depth that she included in her novels. She wrote about social life in her time, but did not use language of the streets. She wrote very correct and intelligent English. She also refused to mention or allude to human body parts or words of work or trade because it was not proper.

In the past, English was seen as an "unruly mob" that needed to be controlled by order, grammar, and many many rules. It was an age of prescriptionism. The problem with this theory was that, although many versions of English were being used, only one was viewed as correct. This lead to prejudice and discrimination based on use of language. As stated many times in the video, language and class went hand and hand. People were put into classes based on how they spoke because it was seen as a reflection of their intellect. 

Now, most people view language from a more descriptivist point of view. And, even the prescriptionists aren't nearly as strict as they used to be. It is recognized that many different versions of English exist, and people are more tolerant of accents as English spreads as a very common second language. Also, English words and phrases are spreading faster and wider than ever before with the internet. Phrases or words (or whatever they are, I don't even know) such as YOLO, BRB, TTYL, and the notorious #hashtag are everywhere. This means that the English language is changing at such a rate that it would be impossible to prescribe strict rules for it.
"Speaking Proper." The Adventure of English. Dir. Nigel Wattis. Melvyn Bragg. LWT, 2003.