[Lexicog] The English (was Naming the Beautiful Game ..)

[John Roberts]

Michael,

The Flanders and Swan comic song about the English being better than all the 
rest acclaims the fact that the English are not like johnny foreigner who 
all have ways inferior to the English. In the song "foreign" includes the 
Scots, the Welsh and the Irish, by the way. But with over 250 languages 
spoken in London it looks like the whole world has (or have) become English! 
So what does it mean to be English today?

In my Collins COBUILD dictionary it says "English means belonging to or 
relating to England, or to its people or language" and my NODE dictionary 
says "English: relating to England or its people or language." I would say 
only the first option is valid today. The English people have many different 
ethnic and cultural mixes today. All the peoples of the world now live in 
England and English is the language of the world. This is either the 
ultimate irony for Flanders and Swan.or the ultimate vindication.

"The English the English the English are best
     I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest"

John Roberts 



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