home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
- Path: sparky!uunet!stanford.edu!apple!constellation!midway.ecn.uoknor.edu!mmmirash
- From: mmmirash@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu (Mandar Mukund Mirashi)
- Subject: Re: English English versus *American* English
- Message-ID: <1992Jul30.172526.10336@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu>
- Sender: usenet@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu (Nets)
- Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
- References: <cummings.712360831@milton> <1992Jul29.195337.22793@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu> <1992Jul30.062825.15929@midway.uchicago.edu>
- Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 17:25:26 GMT
- Lines: 57
-
- In article <1992Jul30.062825.15929@midway.uchicago.edu> goer@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
- >mmmirash@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu (Mandar Mukund Mirashi) writes:
- >Perhaps I shouldn't enjoy this so much.
- >
- >Mandar, who are these original speakers? Are they the Saxons? Are they
- >the many Norse tribes that settled throughout England, and left a per-
- >manent linguistic mark on the countryside? Are they the Normans who con-
- >tributed so mightily to our vocabulary, and who eventually adopted the
- >language in toto?
- >
- >
- You are going back to stage when the language was in its infancy...
- ...but before the English established colonies in America, the English
- language had stabilised to a fair extent. This is why I claim that the
- English are the original speakers.
-
-
-
- >Mandar, you again have selective "hearing," ignoring many sensible things
- >that have been said, in efforts to preserve this preoccupation you have
- >with the Brits. As one poster pointed out, spelling has fluctuated sub-
- >stantially throughout the last few centuries, and American conventions have
- >no more or less claim to "originality" than do British ones. The American
- >dialect(s) are also no more or less "original" than the various British
- >dialects, and so the situation there is analogous.
-
- NO THEY ARE NOT!!!!
-
- >In fact, you'll find
- >may archaic features of English preserved in American speech that are
- >being lost in Britain, and surely vice-versa as well.
- >
- Only the original speakers of the language have the authority to
- change it (at least, as far as word spellings go!).
-
- >Language is a glorious thing.
-
- Yep......I agree totally! :)
- >
- >Personally, my guess is that all your life you've been taught to value
- >emulation of a specific English dialect, and that you find it hard to look
- >back on your conditioning, and do the right thing: Laugh!
-
- Do you laugh at standards set? Do you laugh at road signs? Do you
- laugh at the law of the country?
-
- >
- >I can't wait until you travel to Australia.
- >
- >--
- >
- > -Richard L. Goerwitz goer%midway@uchicago.bitnet
- > goer@midway.uchicago.edu rutgers!oddjob!ellis!goer
-
- That would pose no problem......as far as I know, I have come across
- mangled spellings only in the US. Could you list some mangled spellings
- from "Australian" English?
-