Re: World Wide Language

Gerry wrote to Rex's point

> Rex writes: junkI'se born down'air in ol' Geo'ja...an yall ain't

gonna

> sit ov'air an tell me we'uns talk
> difernt! No siree bob. Ya Hear now! I'll jus take'en go over'ta the
> Libry en gets me some proof! Never in my born days have I heard such
> like. En them good 'ol boys in Ahstrailyer ain't gonna like it too

all

> fired much neither. :-)
> Mark needs to
> add Irish to his list (Scots, Anglican, American; So(u)thron, and
> Strine)
> which makes it at least six. New Englanders are also

close....somehow

> they lose all
> R's late in the word: they don't park the car in Boston..they pahk

the

> cah.
>
> Gerry: No, Rex. New Englanders don't pahk the cah in Boston; they

pahk

> the cah in Hav-id yaad.

I think we can add more English languages than this. We can add
Jamaican patois (or at least West Indian), Bombay Welsh (from India),
Pasar English (from Singapore, Malaysia and through to Hong Kong), Suth
Aafrikaan, Kiwi and Kanak Pidgin (And that leaves out West and East
African English). And hey, while we are on it, what about Cockney,
Mancunian, Yoorikshire, Zumerzet, or Liverpudlian! Given the way Latin
fragmented into Portugese, Galician, Spanish, Catalan, Occitan, French,
Rhaeto Romansch, Italian, and Vlach, it would seem we are witnessing
the beginnings of the same process in our World Language. We have
centrifugal and centripedal tendancies at work. Whether North Atlantic
English is the one that becomes world recognised "General" (Classical)
English we have yet to see.

> Gerry: Yup. I think whether or not we like it or don't, English is

the

> language of choice, of ease, of the internet, of international

commerce

> etc. If you want to become wealthy, you must speak English. Sad but
> true. And even those folks from Georgia (next to Florida) and the

good

> 'ol boys in Ahstrailyer are going to have to adjust their dialectical
> leanings!

Aowja'goin mayt. Chugga lug. If'yasol wanna tok Strine yasol'l 'avta
lern rill English hia down-under.

There is one language that is unerversal and that is not the language
of English! Its the language of mathematics! And unlike English it is
understood by an even fewer number, but unlike English the "grammar" is
now (and always will be) universal. But making mathematics a more
widespread language is even harder than learning English irregular
verbs.

John