But what I have most at Heart is, that some Method should be thought on for ascertaining and fixing our Language for ever, after such Alterations are made in it as shall be thought requisite. For I am of Opinion, that it is better a Language should not be wholly perfect, that it should be perpetually changing.
—Jonathan Swift, Irish satirist, poet, and clergyman, A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue, 1712