<div dir="ltr"><p align="center" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:center"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">=====================================================<br> L O W L A N D S - L - 11 January 2014 - Volume 02<br>

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Language Codes: <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/codes.php" target="_blank">lowlands-l.net/codes.php</a><br><font color="#000000">=====================================================</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size:13px"></font><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;margin:0in 0in 0pt">

<font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;margin:0in 0in 0pt">From: <span name="Mike Morgan" class="" style="font-size:13px">Mike Morgan</span><span style="white-space:nowrap"> </span><span class="" style="white-space:nowrap"><<a href="mailto:mwmbombay@gmail.com">mwmbombay@gmail.com</a>></span><br>

Subject: <span style="white-space:nowrap">LL-L "Language varieties" 2014.01.11 (01) [EN]</span></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;margin:0in 0in 0pt"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;margin:0in 0in 0pt">

<div style="font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif"><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Paul, same happens when you set it for Indian English ... which, granted is nowadays a confused mix of British and American usage (I once noted both "gaol" and "jail" on facing pages of an issue of the weekly mag "<span class="" tabindex="0"><span class="">Sunday</span></span> Indian").<br>

<br></div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">so I just -- despite my terrible spelling in ANY/EVERY variety of English -- turn the d@mned spell-check off. .... OR, better yet, use Open office rather than Word ;-)</span><br>

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</span></div><div style="font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">From: </span><span name="Sandy Fleming" class="" style="font-size:13px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Sandy Fleming</span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;white-space:nowrap"> </span><span class="" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;white-space:nowrap"><<a href="mailto:sandy@scotstext.org">sandy@scotstext.org</a>></span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">

<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Subject: </span><span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:arial,sans-serif">LL-L "Language varieties" 2014.01.09 (01) [EN]</span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>

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<div class="gmail_extra" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Ron,<br><br></div><div class="gmail_extra" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Concerning squabbling over American vs British English, I seem to get less and less concerned about language purity all the time.<br>

<br></div><div class="gmail_extra" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">The more I've learned about how languages change and adapt, and the more I think about how different written language is from the way people really speak, the more I think it's futile to try to control this sort of thing.<br>

<br></div><div class="gmail_extra" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">The fact is that huge numbers of British people really like American films and TV, and huge numbers of American people really like British films and TV. Unless you're going to try to get a grip on culture like the Puritans did and ban all film-making, this sort of thing is just going to keep on happening.<br>

<br></div><div class="gmail_extra" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">A question I find more interesting is about the written language. Jane Austen (or anybody you like to pick) is still perfectly readable to English speakers now, will there come a time when we can't read the classics any more? At any rate, the written language seems to remain intelligible across a few centuries (given suitable editing for spelling and punctuation usages), so I don't see how language change is any cause for alarm.<br>

<br></div><div class="gmail_extra" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">I think some of this intelligibility arises from the fact that people these days have big vocabularies and good dictionaries, and can cope with a wide range of writing. Maybe the key to the whole thing is that it doesn't matter what kind of English gets spoken or written if your education is broad enough to deal with it.</div>

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<span style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:arial,sans-serif">Sandy Fleming</span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></span></div></div><p align="center" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-align:center">

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