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L O W L A N D S - L - 20 December 2010 - Volume 01<br>
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<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From:
"dealangeam" <<a href="mailto:atdelange@iburst.co.za">atdelange@iburst.co.za</a>></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject:
"Language survival" [EN]</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Dear Lowlanders </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">I wrote:</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">>>When a country has more than two cultures, each with its own
language, these cultures die off one after the other. It seems to be in line
with Darwinian evolution, survival of the fittest. But should one of the
languages be colonial like Portugese, Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian and
German, it is rather like the invasion of an alien plant or animal species.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Andy Eagle replied</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">>That is a misrepresentation of Darwinian evolution as an explanation
for the diversity of life forms on the planet. In biological species natural
selection occurs over generations due to changes in the natural environment in
which a species lives. Survival of the fittest does not mean survival of the
strongest or most powerful but survival of those best fitted to cope with the
change in the environment.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Andy, you quoted only the first two sentences so that i had to quote the
whole paragraph again. It gives the context for any sentence in it. Similarly
the phrase "It seems to be..." is part of the second sentence. That
is why i did not write "It is ..." That would indeed be a
misrepresentation. Furthermore, i never used the words "strongest"
and "powerful".</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Living species is little fitted to cope with sudden changes like a
massive meteor hitting the earth or a volcano erupting with super force. Both
can cause a winter lasting for more than a hundred years. Likewise living
species is little fitted to cope with large changes. The introduction of
colonial languages in the 1600's to human cultures all over the world, was
sudden and large.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">To explain it without the rest of the history of cultures as context,
would most probably be a misrepresentation. Imperialism has a clear history of
some 5,000 years old. Going back another 5,000 years into the dawn of history
is treacherous. Anyway, the last 350 years of colonialism compared to 5,000
years of imperialism gives an error margin of 4.4% even for the best of explanations.
The last 50 years is excluded because globalism replaced colonialism.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">You wrote:</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">>Language change in human societies is the result of decisions made
by human beings, there is nothing ‘natural’ or inevitable about any particular
outcome.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">I would say "Language change in human societies is the result of
human thinking”. Although our species is named "Homo sapiens",
thinking wisely is rare among humans. As for the "or inevitable", I
would qualify it carefully. In short, it comes to this. If the native speakers
"have to use" a lingua franca other than their mother tongue for the
higher faculties of learning, the outcome is inevitable extinction. With
the "have to use" i mean they are ignorant of the fact that their
mother tongue is good for any learning, or they are forced to use the lingua
franca since business and civil service do not make provision for them.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Mooi loop</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">At de Lange</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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