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<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 20 November 2007 - Volume 05
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Song Contest: <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/contest/">lowlands-l.net/contest/</a> (- 31 Dec. 2007)</span>
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">
Sandy Fleming</span> <span class="lDACoc"><<a href="mailto:sandy@scotstext.org">sandy@scotstext.org</a>></span></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe">LL-L "Lexicon" 2007.11.22 (01) [E]<br><br></span><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="Ih2E3d">
> From: Paul Finlow-Bates <<a href="mailto:wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk">wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk</a>><br>> Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2007.11.21 (04) [E]<br><br></div><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="Ih2E3d">
> Hi Sandy,<br>><br>> I sort of two-thirds agree. The danger with English being<br>> "over-classical" is the belief that such words are somehow naturally<br>> better. This is an affliction that I find affects non-native learners,
<br>> especially those from Africa and SE Asia; There is clearly a taught<br>> idea that "excavate" is good English whereas "dig" is somehow "low<br>> class" or uneducated.<br><br></div>
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Yes, but as soon as you overreact, you lose. They drop "dig" from the</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
language, you drop "excavate". Either way, the language is impoverished.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Worse still, non-native learners might still stick with "excavate" and
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">so on, and the language starts to split into different varieties in</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">which the meanings of the remaining words adjust to fill the gaps left</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
by the abolished words, so that none of them are any longer English as</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">we knew it, nor as we tried to engineer it.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">One of the problems with anglosaxonics, shavianism, esperantism and so
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">on is that enthusiasts believe in the idea that the whole world will one</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">day embrace their ideas. Anglosaxonics was sick unto death in its</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
heyday, what's different now? The Internet makes these things more</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">available but it doesn't seem to make them catch on.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I suppose all language enthusiasts suffer a bit of Weltschmertz over how
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">certain groups use a language, but you ponder the meaning of that word</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">and realise that this is how things are. Language use in the real world</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
will always disappoint the purist.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
•
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