The UPenn IE Tree (a test)

[Eduard Selleslagh]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

(About Latin being a living language in the Middle Age)

>>If I utter a novel sentence in, say, Tocharian B, does that mean that
>>Tocharian B is a 'living' language?

>No.  But if you said it to a group of people who understood it, and they could
>and did reply in kind, the situation is different.  I realize that negatives
>are difficult to prove, but what arguments could you present that Latin was
>not a living language among medieval and renaissance churchmen and scholars?
>They could and did use it for all purposes.

>Leo A. Connolly

[Ed Selleslagh]

There is a modern equivalent: What I call '(European) NATO English'. It is a
variety of English that 's nobody's first language, but is used by lots of
non-English speaking Europeans as a lingua franca. It is slightly more American
than British as far as vocabulary is concerned (phonetically it tends to be
more British), and has some weird French and German twists. Just listen to a
communique' by the European Commission (in its so-called English version) or
watch the 'Europe Direct' program on BBC World TV and you'll know what I'm
talking about. Is it English? Yes. Is it alive? Yes. Is it a natural language?
No.

Ed.