You Can Call Me Al

Couldn't agree more with Kent Anderson on the elusive 'al' at the end of words:

Now, I know when it counts. I know that “historic” is different from “historical” and “classic” is different from “classical.” I get that. But I recently saw a children’s book on a store shelf that promised a gallery of “mythologic creatures.” Oddly, it hurt my ears even to read it silently to myself in the bookstore because “mythologic” is so jarringly, teeth-grindingly inelegant. It should be “mythological.” The human mouth prefers to end words in neutral positions. It’s just a physiological reality. Speaking of that — hey, you medical editors, why is it suddenly “physiologic” instead of “physiological”? Since when is it “pharmacologic” instead of “pharmacological”?Kent Anderson, The Scholarly Kitchen, May 2009

I first noticed this living in The Netherlands working for a certain scholarly publisher. The number of times I heard a Dutch person say "it is not logic" and I shouted back "AL! LogiCAL!"... I wouldn't mind as much if they didn't have such a superior view of their own grasp of the English language. It drove me so insane I had to move to London.