LL-L "Language history" 2011.05.02 (03) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 02 May 2011 - Volume 03
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From: clarkedavid8 at aol.com

Subject: LL-L "Language history" 2011.04.18 (01) [EN]


In the 1970s, it was Britain's turn to be "the sick man of Europe" and I
myself remember being jokingly referred to as "englische Qualität" on an
Austrian ski holiday in the middle of that decade. It never occurred to me
to claim that all other languages were merely degenerate versions of English
as a riposte, however: I think I would have been even more of a laughing
stock if I had made such a claim.

This sort of thing tends to be based on linguistic ignorance in conjunction
with nationalism that feeds on supposedly glorious bygone age.

When he was serving as Turkey’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was
trying hard to rekindle confidence among Turks after the country’s period of
being “the sick man of Europe,” which ended with the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire.

R. F. Hahn


From: clarkedavid8 at aol.co <clarkedavid8 at aol.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language history" 2011.04.15 (03) [EN]

Between the two world wars, the Sun theory of language development (much
favoured by Kemal Ataturk and taught in Turkish schools and universities for
a time) held that all the world's languages were descended from Turkish and
that all words can be derived from Turkish roots: e.g. the name of the river
Amazon comes from the Turkish words "Ama" (but) and "Uzun" (long). Turkish
place names were changed to bring them closer to what were held to be their
original Turkish roots. I was onced taught ancient Greek by a Greek woman
who held similar beliefs about her own language, so perhaps they are a
feature of that part of the world.

David Clarke

From: R. F. Hahn
<sassisch at yahoo.com<http://uk.mc286.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sassisch@yahoo.com>>

 Subject: History

Dear Lowlanders,
 .....
(This article) asserts that recent findings point toward there having been
one proto language, i.e. one ancestor of all of today’s languages.

Mind you, this is by most considered fringe science.

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