Annoying mistakes

THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH Friday June 16, 2006
Annoying mistakes
IN STARTWO of The Star of June 7, there is a letter to Big Brother from a young person, headlined ‘Stupid Mistake’, that contains a grammatical mistake which is especially common in spoken English in the UK.
The correspondent writes:
“Later on, me and a team member asked a girl in our group for her project file.”
This should read:
“Later on, a team member and I asked a girl in our group for her project file.”
I have lived in Malaysia for many years and I am always grateful for the fact that so many people speak English, since I am so bad at languages and, like most English people, lazy about learning them.
Most Malaysians I meet speak English well, and even when they don’t, at least they make the effort, which is quite a lot of effort considering the chaotic irrationality of English vocabulary and grammar.
However, there are one or two errors that really annoy me, but which have come to be accepted as normal (I can’t understand how but that is the state of things at present).
For example, I get communications from societies and business organisations I am a member of inviting me to a meeting, and the text adds:
“Please revert to us at your earliest opportunity.”
This is a completely wrong use of the word revert. The correct use is featured in the following sentence:
“At first, she found him to be a good and caring husband. But after some time he reverted to his old ways and began abusing her.”
or
“At the stroke of midnight, the coach that Cinderella had been riding in reverted to a pumpkin.”
I really cannot understand how this word revert has come to be misused. Why do they not write:
“Please reply to us at your earliest opportunity.”
That would be the correct English here. – Hassan Peter Brown

The above passage has drawn comments (from Stewart West, Kajang and myself) published in Open Channel of THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH of June 21, 2006 which are reproduced below:-
MIND OUR ENGLISH
Wednesday June 21, 2006
Open channel
Blame it on the Brits
In the late 1970s, I joined a British company in the field of aviation communications and frequently received correspondence requesting me to “revert”. (See Hassan Peter Brown’s letter of June 16.)
At first, I asked into what I had to change back. It was explained that the term was aviation radio “shorthand” when a response was required. Unfortunately, this silly usage has crossed into Malaysian English.
Sorry, Hassan, you must blame your own countrymen for this. – Stewart West, Kajang

It’s Indian English
I read with surprise Hassan Peter Brown’s letter of June 16. I have also come across a lot of business communication using the word “revert”. Whether there is actually a misuse, let us convince ourselves after learning the meanings/definitions of the word given by each of the following sites:
infoplease.com/dictionary to return to a former habit, practice, belief, condition, etc.
Allwords.com to return to as a topic in thought or conversation.
Dictionary – MSN Encarta return in discussion: to return to an earlier topic in the course of a discussion.
urbandictionary.com write back, reply: in other words divert my attention back to you. Indian English - (as) I will revert to you in due course. (sign-off for a business letter) – Kengt, Penang