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Don't forget for Americans English is a foreign language...
Sorry, but this is rubbish unless this is meant ironically.
English might have been the lingua franca within the British realm, i.e. the UK and its colonies, but the real dominance in the world and especially in Europe (which this thread is about) only started after WW2 thanks to America. Their American English (yes, AE really exists) dominates the world today.
And while you keep mentioning that the English people are responsible for the Americans speaking English I would like to remind you that without the Angles, Jutes and Saxons you would not speak English. So it's really because of us Germans as well as Danes and some French Normans later on that English is the lingua franca of the world today.
Sorry, but this is rubbish unless this is meant ironically.
English might have been the lingua franca within the British realm, i.e. the UK and its colonies, but the real dominance in the world and especially in Europe (which this thread is about) only started after WW2 thanks to America. Their American English (yes, AE really exists) dominates the world today.
And while you keep mentioning that the English people are responsible for the Americans speaking English I would like to remind you that without the Angles, Jutes and Saxons you would not speak English. So it's really because of us Germans as well as Danes and some French Normans later on that English is the lingua franca of the world today.
I agree WW2 was the wathershed event although the empire certainly got the ball rolling , thereafter came Hollywood , The Beatles and rock'n roll , IBM - Microsoft etc to finish the job.
Sorry, but this is rubbish unless this is meant ironically.
English might have been the lingua franca within the British realm, i.e. the UK and its colonies, but the real dominance in the world and especially in Europe (which this thread is about) only started after WW2 thanks to America. Their American English (yes, AE really exists) dominates the world today.
And while you keep mentioning that the English people are responsible for the Americans speaking English I would like to remind you that without the Angles, Jutes and Saxons you would not speak English. So it's really because of us Germans as well as Danes and some French Normans later on that English is the lingua franca of the world today.
We have been repeating the same thing to him during countless posts. It's called post-empire syndrome and is lasting too much, so they behave like Don Quixote and the mills and are the laughing stock of the continent. Hard to realize that the empire is gone, it involves a sense of slow death and instrospection as Spain in 1898.
Sorry, but this is rubbish unless this is meant ironically.
English might have been the lingua franca within the British realm, i.e. the UK and its colonies, but the real dominance in the world and especially in Europe (which this thread is about) only started after WW2 thanks to America. Their American English (yes, AE really exists) dominates the world today.
And while you keep mentioning that the English people are responsible for the Americans speaking English I would like to remind you that without the Angles, Jutes and Saxons you would not speak English. So it's really because of us Germans as well as Danes and some French Normans later on that English is the lingua franca of the world today.
Of course its not 'rubbish' its a simple fact, incidentally I don't disagree about the Angles, Jutes etc, I for one can see how history has consequences even if some others don't like to admit to it. The fact is everything you have typed is in English NOT American English and you are speaking English because of the English, the language DID NOT originate in the US, it IS an imported foreign language just the way Portugese is an imported foreign language in Brazil. The way (some) Americans are desperately trying to 'claim' a European language is laughable. If it wasn't for the British Empire I am pretty certain you would be speaking French although I am sure you would still be trying to call it 'American French' or some such nonsense.
Don't forget for Americans English is a foreign language, the USA is made up from people from across the globe however English is the foreign language that took hold of America just as its taken hold in other parts of the world, English is as 'foreign' as German or French or Spanish, it just so happens that because of the position of the British at the time the US was founded (or snatched from the indigenous population if you like) English was the European language that prevailed there. Here is something to ponder, if it wasn't for Nelson it could easily have been French that became the worlds lingua franca, an example of how 'circumstances' has resulted in English becoming (currently) the worlds dominant language.
US English is a variety of English, but it's still English. We're communicating now in standard English. If we say that English was an "imported" language, we must also say that English was still the default language of the US before there was a United States. Most all the early colonists, all the pioneers who moved westward, and the Anglo immigrants who settled Texas and California spoke English only. Remember that Spain sent soldiers and missionaries but very few colonists to California and New Mexico; most of the Spanish territories, including Florida, had forts and missions but a dearth of immigrants. Same for the French in Louisiana and Missouri, except for New Orleans (a real non-Anglophone city that remained French-speaking until the First World War). Russia sent few Russian-speaking colonists to Alaska. English therefore had no problem dominating these other languages. Since 1800, English has been taught as the mother tongue in US schools (required every year of our education, just as French is required every year in France). Spanish, German, French and Latin have always been part of the foreign-language program.
New immigrants today, especially undereducated or unauthorized immigrants, won't necessary master English. Their children always do, though, thanks to the dominant Anglophone culture and Anglophone school system here. English is the de facto national language, but it was also that in 1800.
Last edited by masonbauknight; 05-19-2017 at 08:15 AM..
But I like to see an expansion of the language Esperanto.
It is an artificial language, or constructed language, intended as a lingua franca. As I understand it, the idea is that such a language could be designed for simplicity and consistency, making it easier to learn than a natural language.
I believe that Esperanto survived because it has its own culture of sorts-not only literature in Esperanto, but also a flag!
I suspect that, if another artificial language is to gain any influence, that it will have to be even more simple than Esperanto. Perhaps something like an artificially designed pidgin.
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