LL-L "Language politics" 2005.04.11 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 11.APR.2005 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
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From: jpkrause <jpkrause at sunflower.com>
Subject: Language Politics

>From: Paul Finlow-Bates wrote:
>
>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.
>
I sometimes wonder if English will go the way of Latin: that is, after a
period of development will divide into several related but significantly
different languages, just as Latin spawned French, Spanish, Protugese,
Rumanian, Catalan, and others.
Jim Krause

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From: Brooks, Mark <mark.brooks at twc.state.tx.us>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2005.04.10 (09) [E/LS/German]

Mark Williamson wrote: "The fact of the matter is, there is a sort of
unwritten federal law stating that all business of the government is to be
conducted in English and only English, with the exception of certain popular
interactions..."

I work for the Texas Workforce Commission which is an agency of the State of
Texas.  I work in the department that administers Unemployment Insurance in
the state.  All, and I mean all, of our services are available in Spanish as
well as in English.  We go to great pains to have all posters, mailings, and
announcements translated into Spanish.  If someone calls our Tele-Centers,
the first thing they must do is select English or Spanish.  We have a staff
of about 700 people in 6 Tele-Centers across the state.  I would estimate
that about 50% of them are bi-lingual.  In fact, that's one of the preferred
skills when we interview applicants to work here.

I myself have written training material for our Spanish speaking staff to
help them use the unique words that our bureaucratic jargon includes.

In Texas all voting is bi-lingual, voter registration forms are bi-lingual.

One year ago we had our info booklet which is 29 pages translated into
Vietnamese, because we have such a large population of Vietnamese speakers.

Now, we are a state agency and not the federal government.  However, all of
our funding is from the U.S. Department of Labor, and they make no demands
on us about the language we use or don't use.

Before I entered my present position, I worked as a claimstaker (that's one
of our jargon words) in one of the Tele-Centers.  At the time, I took about
50-75% of my calls in Spanish.  On Mondays especially, I would often not
take an English call until after I had returned from my lunch break.

My experience sure contradicts any language policy in the United States.

Mark Brooks

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