LL-L "Language politics" 2005.04.09 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 09.APR.2005 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2005.04.07 (01) [E]


I believe English will become an "Esperanto for everyone"; it is already
losing its role as "Language of the English", who are minority speakers of
the language anyway.  It will then fall on us in England to strengthen and
codify our own dialects, rather think of them as "slang", as is commonly
believed.

Paul

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From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2005.04.08 (08) [E]


The trouble with English "providing the enterprise to give Germanic
Languages opportunity" is that the "English" that becomes most popular with
education, especially amongst non-native English speakers, is the "pidgin
Latin" variety.  Ask any Singaporean, Taiwanese, or Indian which is "better"
English - dig or excavate, think or contemplate/cogitate/consider, home or
residence; the list goes on.

Paul

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language politics

Thanks, Paul.  I share your prediction and suggestion regarding the role and
future of English.

To a vast degree, English has grown into a neutral language already, which
is what I think you implied.  I feel that what holds many people back from
accepting this is that English happens to be a first language of many and is
by many still associated with colonialism, which prompts them to associate
the promotion of international English use with continuation of perceived
colonialism in the form of "Americanization" and domination of multinational
corporations.  I am sure that this is further strengthened by the European
obsession with the concept "one language, one ethnicity, one nation."  So
what I am saying is that English is factually a neutral language already,
just not in the minds of certain traditionally thinking people.  I am under
the impression that this role of English worries the speakers of "smaller"
languages less than those of "more important" ones, that in the instance of
the latter a sense of loser's chagrin is involved.

Having said this, of course there are some disadvantages in that English
orthography is not exactly "user-friendly," and acquisition is further
impeded by idiomatic phrases being particularly numerous and important, also
by the rate of change being particularly fast in English, in part because of
its easy adaptability and constant adaptation to new cultures and
technologies.  English phonology is not particularly easy to learn either,
what with an abundance of reduced vowels.  In some ways, among the "more
important" and wide-spread languages it would probably be Spanish that would
have been more suitable.  However, most learners of English seem to be doing
pretty well (and I have been watching many a new Lowlander's school-learned
English bloom after just a few months on the List).  I think we ought to
face facts and make the best of the development which is well under way, for
better or for worse.

I can see that in the future most native English speakers will be at least
bilingual in that they will know International English in addition to their
local English varieties, if not their national English varieties as well.
This will put them into pretty much the same position as everyone else: they
will have to learn International English as a non-native variety (though
acquisition is no doubt easier for them than for others).  To retain their
own separate identities and language-based cultures and also to safeguard
the neutrality of International English they would do well preserving and
developing their local English varieties.  I can see all of this leading to
a situation in which we will have a neutral international language and at
the same time considerable enrichment of the English language as a whole.

Thanks again, Paul!

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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