Date: 9 Apr 2000 15:22:18 +0200 From: naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de (Christian Weisgerber) To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Spellings Message-ID: <8cq06a$1le0$1@bigeye.rhein-neckar.de> References: <20000404152346.01398@techunix.technion.ac.il> <20000407202917.A1417@sys3.physics.iisc.ernet.in> <xzpitxtq1k5.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no> <20000407233952.A1610@theory1.physics.iisc.ernet.in>
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Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> wrote: > By the way, I think one reason for the confusing nature of English > spellings is that it has imported words from languages all over the > world, often with little modification in spelling if the original > script was the same, and it continues to do so. First, I think the tendency of English to pick up loans is overstated. A whole lot of words imported during the colonial period and referring to foreign plants, animals, and cultures are actually in pan-European use. English was reshaped by the large influx of Romance vocabulary after the Norman invasion, but that has been a historical event for a few centuries now. The central problem of Modern English spelling is that it is more or less a phonemic representation of Middle English and ignores the substantial sound shifts that occurred since. Probably you would have to trace the outright irregularities individually to explain them. Tradition and inconsequential regularization attempts are good guesses. > But that's also a strength, and it's at least one reason it's > spoken so widely. The global role of English has nothing whatsoever to do with features inherent in the language itself. Rather, it's a consequence from the political, economical, and cultural dominance of first the British Empire in the 19th and later the United States in the 20th century. This applies equally to previous languages in that position, e.g. Greek in the ancient Mediterranean, Latin in medieval and Renaissance Europe, Low German in the Hanseatic League, French in 18th century Europe. For former British colonies English is also a convenient choice as a neutral language since it doesn't give an advantage or an emphasis to any of the resident ethnic groups. I think India is an example for this. French has the same role in parts of Africa. > The French are known to be touchy about imports of American words, > but concepts like "hot dog" and "internet" didn't exist in France > earlier, and to me it makes little sense to invent new words for > these when perfectly good words for these are already in use > everywhere else.... Well, *somebody* had to coin the English neologism, too. Creating your own neologism or a calque is as valid an approach as borrowing a foreign word, and you don't run into problems with phonotactics and spelling. -- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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