Re: The chain-of-dialects

Gerry writes:

> the folks without a computer will become the "other" class. As far as
> folks in France and Germany wishing to preserve their language and

their

> computer "games", I think money does the talking and the world wide
> market is very seductive. It would be worth it for the folks in

France

> and Germany to have their programs written in English -- they'll sell
> more to the rest of the world. The same with Japan.

I don't agree with your point of view here, I guess you didn't
understand what I was trying to say in my message.

> About translation. Can't I take this email and have it converted to

say

> German? I haven't done it yet but I THINK I should be able to

Well, try it! Try translating it into any language and then back -
you'll laugh your @$$ off at the results!

> computer dummy when it comes to technical stuff). And I agree that the
> result should be a "dry" language.

Should it? My point is, people do NOT want to use a dry artificial form
of language to communicate, they want to speak as they normally do and
get coherent replies translated to them in response. We are still
veeery far away from a machine doing anything close to that.

> feeling. Also, I don't think you'll have to wait 20 years or so. I
> think it's happening as we email.

Don't bet your life on it, really.

GK