On Sun, Apr 03, 2011 at 03:08:55PM -0400, Doug wrote: > > This is grossly off topic, but since it's here, i _must_ answer: > > Thank God there is no "English Academy."
As a native English speaker I entirely agree, but I can understand the frustrations of others who are effectively forced to use our language as a lingua franca and cannot find a single, stable definition of it. > In France, their Academy > has the force and power > of law. It is _illegal_ to name anything public in English. If you > have a store and call it by an English > name you will be forced to change it to something French. The only > exception I have heard of > is "Le Drugstore." I don't know how they get away with it. What populist propaganda have you been reading? How do they say "Disneyland" in French? > If English, either British or American, had such an academy, we > would still be speaking the > language of Henry VIII! And we would never have had the opportunity > to get rid of the French > spelling of things like "centre." ... or "table" ? Come on! A nationalistic dictionary compiler (anti- British rather than anti-French) caught the mood of the times and you all lapped it up. 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. > The French may hate everything English, but those of us who speak > any variety of English > appreciate its variety, and we wouldn't have it any other way. But is it _our_ language any more? 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/20110403195417.GA3897@gennes.augarten
