Indian English

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

I hope Larry didn't think I want him to stop. Quite the opposite. I only mentioned AS because it is the AS journal of ADS and what is good enough for AS might should be good enough for ADS-L. .


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Laurence Urdang <urdang at SBCGLOBAL.NET>

Date:         Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:24:30
To:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject:      [ADS-L] Indian English


Butters, et al.
  What I sent has nothing whatsoever to do with publication in AS, of course.  I made the comment (instead of merely just sending the article) because there's been a huge amount of nonsense in recent emails.
  However, it seems to me that if one doesn't want to read such an article, he can just delete it, which is an option not accorded by not having mentioned it to begin with.  Also, because of the occasional failure of links, I generally copy the article to the email for convenience.
  If nobody is interested, I'll stop.
  L. Urdang

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: RonButters at AOL.COM
Subject: Inj*n
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Technically, I'm not sure that I totally agree with Larry Horn's parsing,=20
though I do agree with his conclusion (and am for myself delighted to see=20
postings on ADS-L such as Larry Uradangs). But see the ADS mission statement=
, printed=20
on the ADS web site and inside the cover of AMERICAN SPEECH;

Founded in 1889, the American Dialect Society is dedicated to the study of=20
the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects o=
f=20
other languages, influencing it or influenced by it.

In my years as editor of AMERICAN SPEECH (and I believe the later editors=20
have done the same), we interpreted this policy liberally enough to publish=20
articles on any variety of English, assuming that American English had achie=
ved=20
such a wide use that it would of necessity influence--and be influenced by--=
other=20
languages and other Englishes. There would, of course, be a tendancy for=20
authors to self-select, submitting articles pertraining exclusively to non-N=
orth=20
American varieties of English to such fine journals as ENGLISH WORLD WIDE; a=
nd,=20
all other things being equal, we tended to assign a somewhat lower priority=20
to such articles. But my assumption has always been that ADS is a large tent=
.

It is also the case that the AMERICAN SPEECH mission statement goes on to=20
indicate that articles of general theoretical interest are welcome in AS, wh=
ich=20
would tend to support LH's parsing, at least for submissions to the ADS=20
journal, if not (technically) the ADS itself.

By the way, INJUN in American English is usually thought of as something of=20=
a=20
derogatory spelling and pronunciation (though I see that NOAD lists it as=20
merely "offensive").

In a message dated 9/16/07 1:28:38 PM, laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:


> At 8:45 AM -0700 9/16/07, Laurence Urdang wrote:
> >Perhaps I have assumed too much, but I regard
> >the American Dialect Society as an American
> >Society devoted to the subject of Dialect, not
> >neessarily American dialects alone, though I
> >assume somebody with check the original articles
> >and correct me.
>=20
> You're right, as least as we've always
> interpreted those original articles.=A0 It's been
> mentioned a few times over the years on the list
> that we're the [American [Dialect Society]], not
> the [[American Dialect] Society], so Indian
> English is definitely on topic.
>=20
> LH
>=20




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