@Brus,

I'm not sure it is political correctness. It's closer to me acting like an a**hat.

@Peter Reynolds,

Still, a forum shouldn't be rabid.

@Warsaw Will,

You live in Poland right? I have been hearing about the Ukrainian revolt that's been happening. I'm not saying it's likely that it'll spill over but I am concerned about the proximity between Poland and Ukraine.

@jayles,

I think it's more of an increase in cynicism about people and a greater awareness of dangerous people in general.

Now, let's put this all behind us.

I have found this:

Only the media could pick up and run with a complete misuse of pronunciation rules and thrust them into common usage. Even the army is doing this, with an obviously white announcer deliberately doing the 'shtrong' pronunciation in its recruitment ads targeted to black people.

Source: http://forums.bicycling.com/topic/54635607123826951

@Warsaw Will,

Yes, you're right. By my second post, I defended my position, distorting it at that, for the sake of defending it. I will admit to that and be judged accordingly. I acted in a bellicose and outright vulgar manner.

@Peter Reynolds,

I apologize. My behavior was unacceptable and uncivil. I don't expect you to accept it, nor do I want you to, only for the fact that my behavior was inexcusable. I hope you will continue post here on Pain in the English, despite my vitriol.

I think I won't be posting on Pain in the English for awhile. My apologies to all here.

@Paul Reynolds,

There is nothing to correct in "It is she" vs. "It is I". They are two different personal pronouns. The only thing that could be seen as awkward is the use of the third person instead of the first person. Also not once have I criticized the use of "It is her/him/it/me/them" in comparison to "It is he/she/it/they/I". My issue was with what I interpreted as a slight twinge of superiority in your judgment. I pointed out formal grammar because of how you reacted to someone using 'she' instead of 'her'.

On 'whomever', the propagation of it might have increased since its use. This was typically found in the archaic form of 'whomsoever' and 'whosoever'.

I want to say your second-to-last paragraph seems like a generalization. I don't think prescriptivists are just Americans.

@Warsaw Will,

Yes, I was wrong about the anecdote. I will concede to that, but I will not concede to my despisal of his ignorant judgment of another person.

@Joy,

What my main issue is is stated in your own post (brackets for emphasis):

"Hence, I would like to proffer the hypothesis that the [unfamiliarity of the concept breeds contempt of the use]."

*site

@Peter Reynolds,

Perhaps, it is endemic to females, but your knowledge of formal grammar is not irrelevant because you made a judgment: "I thought the customer was being ironic because she was being asked if she was, say, Janet". You thought she was being ironic because you lacked the knowledge that this is what a prescriptivist would consider the 'most correct form' to use. However, I can't speak for the female caller, so she might not be aware of grammar at all, and if that is the case, then you are somewhat right. Also 'this is she', unless the speech was inflected, is not a question; it's a simple statement.

Read more carefully: " ‘She’ is the nominative form of the word, so it cannot be used to describe somebody who is the object of a sentence (in this example, ‘this’ would be the subject)." The questioner asked whether 'This is she" is more grammatically correct than 'this is her' because they believed 'is' to be taking an object when in fact it takes subjective complement.

I apologize for offending you. I probably shouldn't have attacked you like that, but this sight has been getting extra traffic, and someone of the people who have commented recently have been less than desirable.

@Peter Reynolds,

You don't have knowledge of formal grammar, do you?

"This is she/he/it/I" is the formal form of "This is her/him/it/me". Your anecdotes are meaningless. It's not an Americanism nor a Britishism; it is formal grammar use.

@Emil E or M,

I don't think anyone here would care if you were single or not because we, the regulars here—Warsaw Will, AnWulf, Jayles, Hairy Scot, porsche, Skeeter Lewis, Dyske, myself, and others—that is, would not like a vain, supercilious, pretentious, bombastic (or grandiloquent, magniloquent, or orotund if those are more suitable) partner who can barely write a complete sentence, which treads over itself, i.e. a run-on sentence, competently and without verbose garbage and who patronized porsche for addressing Skeeter Lewis and not you. This I confirmed, for Skeeter was the first to use "cohort" on this page.Maybe you should reflect on "who you Think you are" before replying with such condescension. Also verbosity is not equivalent to vocabulary, lexicon, or, for those Anglishers, wordstock. Stop using a thesaurus, learn the definitions of words properly.

Remember your respect on the board.

Good day.

@AnWulf,

On rereading your question, I seem to have misinterpreted it the first time. But to iterate what was said in the previous post, the Italian word "cassa" predates French "casse". Sorry about that.