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Photos from the book Storefronts - The Disappearing Face of New York (2010) by James Murray (of James & Karla fame).

Shown above are Manhattan businesses below 23rd Street, photographed 2003-04:

ABC Electrical Appliances, Canal and Essex; Capitol Fishing Tackle, 23rd Street between 7th & 8th Aves; Ding Ho Laundry, East 20th near First Ave; Gertel's Bakery, Hester near Essex; Lichtenstein & Co., Delancey at Elbridge, Raul Candy Store, Avenue B at East 13th

The entire book is available at Internet Archive here.

#NYC #storefront #manhattan #james murray

Language is mobile and liable to change … a very large number of words have two or more pronunciations current … giving life and variety to language … it is a free country, and a man may call a vase a vawse, a vahse, a vaze, or a vase, as he pleases. And why should he not? We do not all think alike, walk alike, dress alike, write alike, or dine alike; why should we not use our liberty in speech also, so long as the purpose of speech, to be intelligible, and its grace, are not interfered with?

James Murray, aka the original guy behind the oxford english dictionary, being pretty damn tolerant for 1895

#linguistics #language #dictionaries #james murray #descriptivism #lexicography