LL-L: "Multilingualism" LOWLANDS-L, 26.OCT.1999 (09) [E]

[R. Hahn]

The same applies to this one.

Reinhard/Ron

On Wed, 27 Oct 1999, Rudolf Maree wrote:

> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (86 lines) ------------------
> Dear John; some thoughts on your three questions:
>
> A)    I would think all languages except English can be classified as
> "minority languages". English is poised to take over as lingua        franca of
> the whole planet. I'm not too sure about the situation in     Europe but
> in South Africa we have definite problems keeping our         other indigenous
> languages alive.
> B)    After having to struggle through Latin myself I have to disagree
> with  you. Not only are dead languages not spoken, there are so many
> "live" languages on the verge of extinction that it seems a waste
> pining after Virgilian and company.
> C)    Learning Latin vocabulary was definitely made easier because of
> roots shared in both English and Afrikaans. Attempting to learn       one
> of the "black" South African Languages is nearly impossible.  All the
> words are totally strange and the whole structure of the      language is
> alien.
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:       Lowlands-L Administrator [SMTP:sassisch at yahoo.com]
> > Sent:       Wednesday, October 27, 1999 5:51 AM
> > To: LOWLANDS-L at LINGUIST.LDC.UPENN.EDU
> > Subject:    LL-L: "Multilingualism" LOWLANDS-L, 26.OCT.1999 (09) [E]
> >
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> >  L O W L A N D S - L * 26.OCT.1999 (09) * ISSN 1089-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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> >
> > From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
> > Subject: Multilingualism
> >
> > Henno quoted a news item about the European Commission wanting us all to
> > speak three EU languages by the year 2001 [sic].
> >
> > Ron responded with his "dream" of people casting the net more widely and
> > learning languages from more remote areas.
> >
> > Three points occur to me.
> >
> > a. What is a minority language on the world scale? I met an Italian (a
> > teacher employed to teach the children of staff of the Italian Embassy in
> > London) who asked me why I bothered to learn her language "because only 50
> > million people speak it".
> >
> > b. It seems plausible that there are dead languages with a much greater
> > claim on people's time (because they have a significant literature) than
> > living "minority" languages. I have recently started to learn Classical
> > Greek, and Latin also has an appeal. The "Old" and "Middle" forms of our
> > mother tongues have a particular claim..
> >
> > c. Is it easier or more difficult learn a language closely related to
> > one's
> > mother tongue than a linguistically  more remote one? I was told by a
> > German
> > with almost perfect English that French is much more difficult for
> > German-speakers because of the lack of common roots of words. She argued
> > that English is a good place to start learning both Germanic and Romance
> > languages because of our "mixed" vocabulary. I don't really believe that
> > this is an important consideration. As soon as we think we recognise words
> > in French we find (or don't!) that a lot of them are "false friends".
> >
> > John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk
> >
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