On Sun, Apr 03, 2011 at 05:32:34PM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote: > On 04/03/2011 05:02 PM, David Jardine wrote: > >On Sun, Apr 03, 2011 at 03:17:55PM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote:
> >>> I don't know if England had its own xenophobic > >>>equivalents, but I think the English would be less likely to accept > >>>changes of spelling decreed from above. > >> > >>Above? Webster didn't get his dictionary mandated by the government. > > > >By "above" I didn't mean government. Webster was "above". > > > > Who decreed that Webster was "above". Who decreed that Microsoft was "above"? > >>>But is it _our_ language any more? > >> > >>Not after you beggared yourself after the two World Wars. > > > >Misunderstanding: by "our" language I meant the language of native > >speakers of English - American, Australian, English or whoever. > > Successfully spreading your empire (and thus your language) around > the world /de facto/ dilutes your ownership of the language, by > virtue of each group you teach it to morphing it to their own needs. It's not mipela empire and language, it's yumipela empire and language. > >example, we insist on saying, "We've been doing it like this for ages", > >who are we to say that "We do it like this since ages" is not correct? > > > > If they were doing it "this way" before I was born, then they've > been doing it for ages... :) But my grandchildren (mixed English, French, German, Italian) insist that they have done it since agess. :) > > -- > "Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure > the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally > corrupt." > Samuel Adams, essay in The Public Advertiser, 1749 I just love the spelling of "Advertiser". ;) Cheers, David -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110404002403.GA4408@gennes.augarten