> 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!
> Gerry
Oh, Geraldine, enough already of this "you must speak English - the
only possible world language" cr@...! Just because you think so, doesn't
mean everyone has to agree, or, even, to listen to it repeated 20 times
in a row. There is NOTHING in the concept or realization of the
Internet or any other mass media that prevents languages other than
English from gaining prevalence, and it just might happen one day. Just
because your computer's primary language TODAY is English doesn't mean
it's going to remain that way forever.
I come to this message board to learn more about linguistics, and what
I like about it is I can hear opinions of learned professionals in this
field and sometimes get answers to my questions (related to the topic
of our discussion) from them. I don't come here to practice
valleygirl-speak. Frankly, I am being really annoyed by your postings
like this one here:
>Gerry: Rupert Murdoch is certainly rich, huh. But I'll bet he knows
>nothing about language families.
Do YOU? I bet he would at least bother to try looking it up in an
encyclopedia or dictionary before posting his questions on a public
message board.
I am sorry for being harsh, but I have just recently seen another great
discussion (the Indo-european forum on the Linguist List) die due to
people who know nothing about the field posting their inane ideas and
completely disregarding the opinions of professionals. (I'm not saying
that you are doing it, I'm just stating what happened there).
Once again, I would like to apologize for being harsh, but I would
really appreciate it that when you ask something and a member of the
forum responds to you in private, that you would also keep it private
and respond to it by private email and not post it on this forum.
I'm sure some people will disagree with my point of view, but please,
let's keep this forum focused!
GK