[Duo2400] Re: Foreign Language Posting & efficiently pertinentmessages/OT

[Andrew W. Hill]

I like to think of American English as a dialect of English.  That 
way I don't feel bad about using certain phrases, spellings etc. 
It's not a bastardization, it's a dialect!
Aqua

>I remember years ago, when I was a freshman in college, I wrote in 
>one of my papers
>that American English was not english at all but a language that was 
>very similar to
>English ( the Queen's English as it is called here - will they 
>change it to King's
>English when Charles or Harry become King?). The professor was not 
>amused. It was
>meant as a joke. I always thought a trunk was something that came 
>with elephants and
>a boot was something I wore ... this is all confusing to me ... I 
>think I'll go learn
>Japanese or Arabic or something...
>Peter.
>
>"Andrew W. Hill" wrote:
>
>>  >A quick note: I object to the term 'foreign language' for anything
>>  >non-english. To me as a Belgian, a foreign language is anything that
>  > >is not Dutch, French or German. I feel that it is inappropriate to
>>  >consider English as being everyone's 'native', 'official' or
>>  >'national'  language. I do not like to be considered a foreinger
>>  >when I'm sitting behind my own computer in my own house in my native
>>  >town, reading my favorite list. If someone on the internet is a
>>  >foreigner, then everyone is.
>>
>>  The only argument I can see favoring English only is that this is a
>>  US based list.  I think since the list resides in the US, it is not
>>  inappropriate to consider other languages foreign.  Although
>  > officially the USA does not have a national language...

-- 
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
      - John Keats: "Ode To A Nightingale"