From owner-freebsd-chat Sun May 26 0:46:26 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from riker.skynet.be (riker.skynet.be [195.238.3.89]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DE00737B405; Sun, 26 May 2002 00:46:19 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [10.0.1.11] (ip-27.shub-internet.org [194.78.144.27] (may be forged)) by riker.skynet.be (8.11.6/8.11.6/Skynet-OUT-2.19) with ESMTP id g4Q7k7k04774; Sun, 26 May 2002 09:46:07 +0200 (MET DST) (envelope-from ) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: bs663385@pop.skynet.be Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20020526105823.A43084@wantadilla.lemis.com> References: <20020523061551.GA237@lpt.ens.fr> <20020523155541.H230@wantadilla.lemis.com> <20020523063222.GA470@lpt.ens.fr> <20020525075741.GC630@foo31-146.visit.se> <20020525131723.GA3092@lpt.ens.fr> <20020525181133.GA1210@lpt.ens.fr> <20020526105823.A43084@wantadilla.lemis.com> X-Grok: +++ath X-WebTV-Stationery: Standard; BGColor=black; TextColor=black Reply-By: Wed, 1 Jan 1984 12:34:56 +0100 X-Message-Flag: Your copy of Outlook will expire in 3 days. Please contact Microsoft about purchasing a new license. Remember: software piracy is a felony! Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 09:31:57 +0200 To: "Greg 'groggy' Lehey" , Brad Knowles From: Brad Knowles Subject: Re: English dying out? (was: cvs commit: src/sys/alpha/alpha clock.c) Cc: Rahul Siddharthan , chat@FreeBSD.ORG Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 10:58 AM +0930 2002/05/26, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: > The older English-speaking people seem to be inflexible and unwilling > to learn French (or any other foreign language), while the younger > English-speaking people seem to care a lot less about the English > language (as a whole). > > So what's the trend? Are the younger English-speaking people not paying as much attention to the language? Are they tending to learn other languages instead of spending extra time learning English? Are they tending to ignore the rules by which the language has "lived" for hundreds of years? While I might concede the first point, I certainly will not concede the other two, yet I see those things happening with French. > Most people in any country don't look on their language as > something special. They're certainly not overly interested in > learning another language, and that's the reason that very few of > these languages are going to die out. From what I've seen, the Dutch, Flemish, and Danish people in particular are extremely sensitive to the fact that there are so few people in the world that speak their language, and they tend to learn other languages, as well as going well out of their way to keep their own language alive. Indeed, they will frequently learn multiple dialects of their language. It is this concerted effort by the masses (young and old alike) that I feel will be sufficient to help ensure that these languages don't die out. And this is precisely what I *don't* see happening with French -- while the old people may be trying to keep the language "alive", the young people largely couldn't seem to care less, and certainly there is no concerted effort by the masses to keep it "alive". The Dutch, Flemish, and Danish people seem to consider their language a point of pride, whereas the French-speaking people (that is, the ones who care) seem only to be largely offended by the fact that it is no longer the "Lingua Franca" of the world. One is a positive feeling towards their language and the place it has in the world, and one is a negative feeling. Generally speaking, people are attracted to positive feelings and repelled by negative feelings. If population A is small but vigorous and adaptive, and population B is larger but sluggish and indifferent, which do you think is more likely to survive when assaulted by an external and extremely powerful force? Sure, it may take some time for population B to finally die out, and there is the chance that it might wake up and take a more active approach towards survival, but if nothing else changes then it will only be a matter of time before they are gone or so completely assimilated as to be effectively gone. -- Brad Knowles, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message