Can you 'speak to' the issues?

Can you ‘speak to’ the issues?

Hi Emphasis

I love the e-bulletin and have a question for you: in US circles, and increasingly in UK contexts too, I hear the term ‘speak to [the issues]’ to mean something like ‘make reference to [the issues]’ – eg ‘the report speaks to the issue of unemployment’. Is ‘speak to’ correct? I’m monumentally irritated by it but don’t know if it’s just my own biases.

Grateful for your help!

Thanks
Jennifer

Hi Jennifer

I’ve noticed ‘to’ being used in this way a lot of late. Similarly, I also hear, ‘To your point about …, I would say that …’.

My sense is that this is a recent innovation in both US and UK English. But I must also temper that with the caveat that apparently ‘recent’ changes in English often turn out to stretch back years (or even centuries).

I therefore asked our friend and fellow language geek Dr Lynne Murphy for her view. Lynne, who’s from the US originally, is a reader in linguistics at the University of Sussex, and has a special interest in the differences between US and UK English. (I can highly recommend her blog,  Separated by a common language.)

Lynne said:

It has been used in the UK for a long time. The Oxford English Dictionary has examples running back to 1610:

‘I desire them therefore … to speake to these foure points.’

Or in the ‘give evidence’ sense, it’s been used since 1624:

‘[These] speake indeed to the practise since it was in beginning.’

But it’s possibly been repopularised more recently – perhaps in the US first.

So there you have it.

Lynne gave an excellent talk in Brighton last month called ‘How America saved the English language.’ Apparently there are lots of examples of old English being preserved in the US for years before reappearing in the UK.

I’m not sure if that will stop it being irritating though.

Best regards

Rob Ashton
Chief Executive

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