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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the_myth" data-source="post: 3677255" data-attributes="member: 20081">That's speaking, not writing.  Virtually everyone is supposed to learn the same rules of writing [with a few variations...the most notable of which is the distinction between British spelling and punctuation vs. American spelling and punctuation].Actually, no, they don't.  Language rules in 1700, 1800, and perhaps even as late as 1900 were not as formalized as they became AFTER standardized public education and mass literacy (initiated in the mid-1800s, but still not at 100%...hence the impetus for this thread?).  The intent was for everyone to be on the same page [so to speak] with certain rules.While there are regional lexicons [groups of used words], your 2 grandmothers can speak to and understand each other perfectly.  And they possess the same grammar, which is the order and location of words within sentences.  For example, they both will say, "I went to the store yesterday" and understand one another because they possess the same grammar.  One of them does not say, "To yesterday went the store I," which is not English grammar.Again, not entirely accurate.  While all languages shift, grow, and change, there are tons of mechanisms to slow this, like standardized education.  Such changes do not happen overnight, and it's pretty clear that a few thousand people making the same mistakes will not necessarily generate changes.  After all, it only takes more education reforms and we will have a generation that understands "could've" isn't "could of."Actually, there are certain times when sentences can begin with "but," and you did so correctly.  But, alas, you did misuse the semi-colon.  A semi-colon replaces the need for "and" when splicing 2 sentences together.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> The_MythMaster of the Semi-colon!</blockquote>

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