LL-L "Language politics" 2010.04.08 (01) [EN]

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 08 April 2010 - Volume 01*
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From: Hellinckx Luc <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>

Subject: LL-L "Language politics"



Beste Howard,



You wrote:



(The "language police" someone mentioned is a fabrication. Yes, there
are bureaucrats who investigate complaints, but they are no more
"language police" than the people who check your income tax return are
"tax police.")



The report I saw, showed that the guys were no mere bureaucrats. Just like
traffic police both has people who patrol and some who do the office work,
some of those language officers were out in the streets, with a tape ruler,
checking/investigating the size of letters and others were doing
administration. Of course, the department itself did not adhere to the
regular police department (they were not wearing a uniform for example), but
the job they were doing could be compared to that of a traffic policeman:
some registering the offense on the ground, others handling the paper
work...that's why I wrote "some sort of language police", and
"Sprachpolizei" between quotation marks. Better description would be
"language officers enforcing language policy".



Kind greetings,



Luc Hellinckx, Halle, Belgium



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