From owner-freebsd-chat Sat May 25 5:29:22 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 0DBE337B403; Sat, 25 May 2002 05:29:16 -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 g4PCSxk04753; Sat, 25 May 2002 14:29:01 +0200 (MET DST) (envelope-from ) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: bs663385@pop.skynet.be Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20020525075741.GC630@foo31-146.visit.se> References: <3CEAE187.FC1CC966@mindspring.com> <20020522050350.GA266@lpt.ens.fr> <20020523124604.Z45715@wantadilla.lemis.com> <20020523061551.GA237@lpt.ens.fr> <20020523155541.H230@wantadilla.lemis.com> <20020523063222.GA470@lpt.ens.fr> <20020525075741.GC630@foo31-146.visit.se> 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: Sat, 25 May 2002 14:24:00 +0200 To: Martin Karlsson , Brad Knowles From: Brad Knowles Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/alpha/alpha clock.c Cc: Rahul Siddharthan , "Greg 'groggy' Lehey" , Terry Lambert , Annelise Anderson , Jamie Bowden , Alexey Dokuchaev , chat@FreeBSD.ORG Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit 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 9:57 AM +0200 2002/05/25, Martin Karlsson wrote: > Do you think the "weaker" language in such situations will exist in, > say 50 years? I would say that Dutch and Flemish are likely to continue to exist for a long time, whereas I have more questions about French. The reason is that both old and young speakers of Dutch and Flemish tend to be pretty multi-lingual, and while they may speak, understand, read, and write English as well as or better than many "native" English speakers, they also have a strong interest in keeping their language alive. In contrast, I have met many older French speakers that could not speak English at all and apparently had no interest in doing so, but many younger French speakers tend to speak English pretty easily but also seem to be less interested in keeping to the strict rules dictated by l'Academie Française (or the equivalent in their country), and seem to be less interested in keeping the French language itself alive. I think that Dutch and Flemish are likely to survive for quite some time to come, because they recognize that their language is a minority and are willing to adapt their personal communication habits to accommodate a majority language (such as English) while also making a concerted effort to keep their minority language alive. OTOH, many older French-speakers seem to be less willing to recognize that their language is no longer the "Lingua Franca" of the world and continue to live in blissful ignorance, while other French speakers no longer seem to care and are more willing to abandon their language. It'll be really interesting to see what happens in fifty years. In the meanwhile, we can only prognosticate. -- 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