1461: Can Language Standardization be Descriptive? Dec 11, 2018

If you saw the most recent Word Facts video, you'll have seen mention of the Dutch Language Union (DLU) or natively Nederlandse Taalunie, which is an organization that standardizes Dutch between Suriname, Belgium, and the Netherlands. However, this should not be conflated completely with something like Académie Française (AF). Even though the DLU and the AF both organizations created to monitor and regulate their respective language, the DLU is far less prescriptive, and mostly tries to maintain a standardization for spelling, as well as descriptively adding new words to the dictionary, instead of attempting to enforce rules onto other people.