TWO interesting language-related news stories appeared last week, and as I have spent my entire working life in environments that are uniquely language-challenged in different ways — the corporate world, and then media — the news items deserve some thoughtful, albeit somewhat amused attention.

The first was a brief political story out of the US state of Arkansas. As her first official act as governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders — the ill-tempered, pan-faced figure best remembered for being the former US president's first press secretary — signed an executive order banning the use of the word "Latinx" in all official state communications and documents. Whether this was actually a priority as far as the people of Arkansas are concerned is not known, but the move drew some sharp reactions from elsewhere, most of them expressing the opinion that Sanders is a horrible person.

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