Leave it to the British to remind us how to use their language. Last December, The Local Government Association (LGA) issued a list of 100 “non words” it suggests members — local English and Welsh authorities — avoid. Unlike the Académie française, the official authority on the vocabulary, grammar and use of the French language, the LGA isn't guarding against the invasion of English-sounding words. Rather, its aim is to ensure that when local government officials talk with residents, they are delivering clear messages.

Are we as guilty as the British in mangling English? See if you recognize any of these non words (with the translation provided).

• Community engagement (involving people)

• Core value (belief)

• Customer (person)

• Dialogue (talking to people)

• Empowerment (people power)

• Enhance (improve)

• Facilitate (help)

• Fast track (speed up)

• Framework (guide)

• Outcomes/Output (results)

• Transparency (clear)

The LGA didn't bother translating several words — governance and synergies, for example — and instead asked, “Why use them at all?” And, in one case, it challenged the phrase “performance driven” by asking, “Shouldn't everything be people driven?”

LGA Chairman Sir Simon Milton says they created the list of non words to help ensure that residents know what they are receiving for their taxes. “Without explaining what a council does in proper English, then local people will fail to understand its relevance to them or why they should bother to turn out and vote,” he explained in the press release announcing the list.

Too often, language is used to mask reality. George Carlin referred to it as soft language. For example, the condition known as Shell Shock in World War I became Battle Fatigue in World War II. By the Korean War, it changed to a dispassionate Operational Exhaustion, and by Vietnam, it was elevated to a medical problem, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Carlin said that people don't “go broke” anymore, they have a negative cash flow position. Governments don't lie, they engage in disinformation. And, rather than die, we can pass away or expire, like a magazine subscription.

Our emphasis on being comfortable in life has affected our language, too, and left us without the courage to speak directly and honestly. Even in our most serious discussions, too many of us stand in our corners and yell at each other.

Carlin said that soft language is bloodless, lifeless, without a pulse. Because we can do better than that, I suggest we listen to our British cousins about their language while we still have one worth speaking.