On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 05:10:01AM +0100, Ethan Grammatikidis wrote:
>
> This "proper" English is not the language of the English
> people, and I find it remarkable that there is so much so-called
> improperness in common between Britain and the US after 200 years of
> separation and 100 years of compulsory schooling.
>
Since the thread is off topic, more off topicness is just on spot.
When one is interested in creation, evolution, history of languages
"compared grammar"---as I am---the huge differences in the formation of
english and french for example are worth knowing. English is said (not
by me, but by english philologists) to have come from lower
classes---upper classes talking "old" french due to history. And there
is some parallel between english and x86 language, and french or german
and R.I.S.C. language: english have both very short overloaded with
incompatible meanings words, the very used ones, and very long ones;
that's why a lot of people think they "speak" english because with a
bunch of very short ambiguous words they cover the day to day use. And
this is why too pop music is using this english, because it is by far
easier to put shortest words, almost onomatopoeia, on whatever music,
than to have to find lengthy ones having a sense and matching the
rhythm---and if people were generally understanding the meaning of the
pop music "texts" they will probably far less like them...
But to speak or to write a meaningful english, is far more difficult.
And I would say that it is easier to start english than to achieve a
correct level in english and I doubt that a non native english speaker
can achieve it---because there are no written rules but a context that
only a native speaker has: from the dictionnary, there are a lot of
words that seem to convey the very same meaning; but a native speaker
will use some in some context, and other in others; while in french too
distinct words have never the very same meaning, and the nuance is
established.
So back to the initial "off topic", there is a Plan9 idiom like the "C
language" for localization: it ressembles some english easing to grasp
the commands; but there are some actions that don't fit a short word and
tastes vary, none being able to claim having _the_ solution; in this
case "the taste of the chief is the law", that is it's a convention and
it is good and right because it is a convention in order to choose the
colour once and for all, the material and the shape of the bikeshed
being more essential.
So in clear: to my taste, let us leave everything as it is
"historically"; it is Plan9 language, not english, and if this is just
as good as is than with an alternative, this means that this is
better as is since it has established history.
--
Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
http://www.kergis.com/
Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89 250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C
