6.1007, Misc: He/She, English only (bilingualism), German lg ban

Tue Jul 25 19:38:35 UTC 1995

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-6-1007. Tue Jul 25 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  167

Subject: 6.1007, Misc: He/She, English only (bilingualism), German lg ban

Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu>

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                   Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
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Editor for this issue: dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu (Ann Dizdar)

---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
1)
Date:  Tue, 18 Jul 1995 08:27:36 EDT
From:  amr at CS.Wayne.EDU (Alexis Manaster Ramer)
Subject:  Re:  6.976, Disc: He/She

2)
Date:  Thu, 20 Jul 1995 13:59:18 +0300
From:  druuskan at cc.helsinki.fi (Deborah D K Ruuskanen)
Subject:  Re: 6.967, Disc: English only

3)
Date:  Thu, 20 Jul 1995 13:58:46 EDT
From:  jjeep at miamiu.acs.muohio.edu (John M. Jeep)
Subject:   German Street Names

---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date:  Tue, 18 Jul 1995 08:27:36 EDT
From:  amr at CS.Wayne.EDU (Alexis Manaster Ramer)
Subject:  Re:  6.976, Disc: He/She

I don't understand how anyone can deal with the
problem of the generic or default masculine pronouns in English
by ignoring the fact that the same phenomenon is found in just
about any other language you can name, including languages
where no pronoun as such is used in such cases but where the
verb forms indicate gender.

Alexis MR
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2)
Date:  Thu, 20 Jul 1995 13:59:18 +0300
From:  druuskan at cc.helsinki.fi (Deborah D K Ruuskanen)
Subject:  Re: 6.967, Disc: English only

Linguist List: Discussion - English Only
Re: the bilingual situation in Finland

As a non-native speaker of Finnish resident in and a citizen of Finland,
with some twenty years of experience with the two official languages I
would like to say that
1. I personally have had no difficulties in obtaining language help
whenever I needed it, and that help was far more useful in the beginning
than forcing me to learn Finnish would have been.
2.  My children have been brought up to speak English at home, and
Finnish at school, and have not suffered noticably by be
Finnish at school and have not suffered noticably because they are
"different" linguistically.  They learned Swedish at school, which was
compulsory when they began but is no longer "forced" on schoolchildren.
It says a lot for Finland that Swedish is still voluntarily CHOSEN by a
very large number of parents for their children to learn.
3.  The prestige of a language has a lot to do with how speakers of it
are treated.  English is a prestige language in Finland at the moment.
My husband's parents learned German.  Russian was a popular language
when the Soviet Union was one of the biggest economic trading partners
of Finland.
Currently Russian is OUT.
4.  Swedish speaking children of my Swedish speaking friends are
sometimes teased by other schoolchildren, but my experience of school
children is that almost anything will serve as an excuse to tease
another child if teasing is the main object (fatty, blimp, zit-nose,
four eyes, etc.  or the wrong kind of shoes ...).  Language is not the
cause of the teasing.
5.  Almost all Finns are aware that in today's world it is absolutely
necessary to speak more than one language if one does not want to be
completely isolated socially, economically, politically, etc.  I
personally believe that this language awareness is a direct result of
the two OFFICIAL languages, so that everyone in the country is directly
exposed to two languages almost from birth.
6.  Despite everything, the number of native speakers of the Swedish
spoken in Finland has decreased continually every since I arrived twenty
years ago.  Finnish is most definitely the dominant language.  However,
except for the adolescents mentioned by a previous Finnish contributor,
and some of the parents (unfortunately) of these children, almost
everyone in Finland seems to agree that the nation would be impoverished
if Swedish were lost.
7.  Russia, NOT Sweden, ruled Finland during the last century.  There
was no attempt to force the population to learn Russian.  As I recall
from my Russian Lit classes, the RUSSIANS were learning FRENCH!
8.  Conclusion:  Swedish is far from being a CURSE in Finland, and is
rather regarded as a BLESSING.  When I first arrived, the similarity of
English to Swedish meant that I was able to understand the Swedish
instructions more readily than the Finnish, which made it a real
blessing for me.  Along with most Finns, and as an immigrant who has
learned the dominant language, I would just like to add my vote to those
who have supported the plurality of languages as a glue to hold together
not just a nation, but the larger political units emerging (EU), and as
a means to understanding which hopefully will lead to reducing conflict
- including conflict over who is going to be made to speak what
language.

-
Deborah D. Kela Ruuskanen     \  You cannot teach a Man anything,
Leankuja 1, FIN-01420 Vantaa  \    you can only help him find it
druuskan at cc.helsinki.fi       \    within himself.      Galileo
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3)
Date:  Thu, 20 Jul 1995 13:58:46 EDT
From:  jjeep at miamiu.acs.muohio.edu (John M. Jeep)
Subject:   German Street Names

LINGUIST List:  Vol-6-980. Mon Jul 17 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  190
Subject: German Language (banned) in USA

Perhaps there is and will be more to tell.

The Cincinnati City Council has received a recommendation from the Public
Works Department (Committee of Names) that the city display informational
signs on twelve area streets which had lost their earlier German names.
English Street would thus receive a sign (12 by 18 inch) reading "Formerly
German Street, renamed April 9, 1918 because of the anti-German hysteria
during WW I."

The others named (with earlier name in parenthesis):
Woodrow (Berlin) St
Republic (Bremen) St
Edgecliff Road (Brunswick Pl)
Connecticut (Frankfort) Av
Stonewall (Hamburg) St
Yukon (Hanover [sic]) St
Merrimac (Hapsburg) St
Taft Road (Humboldt Av)
Beredith Pl (Schumann St)
Panama (Vienna) St
Orion Av (Wilhelm St).

The German American Citizens League had requested the names of a number of
streets be changed back to their original ones."

Source": Cincinnati Enquirer, 19 July 1995, Metro B1

With the change from Vienna to Panama we see that indeed the hysteria was
not only aimed at Germany. Whether each 'German' street name was 'original'
would need to be ascertained.

John M. Jeep
jjeep at miamiu.muohio.edu
Department of German, Russian, and East Asian Languages
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
(Tel.) 513 529-1821 - (Fax.) 513 529-1807

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