Re: [tied] countries, languages , XX! centuries

Many of us are so accustomed to the monolingual environment of a nation-state that we forget how easily "primitive" people become bilingual or polyglot without any schools or foreign language courses. They can also abandon their native language in favour of a lingua franca (now usually Spanish or English, but in the Roman Empire it was Latin, of course). The lifetime of two or three generations may be enough for a complete language shift to occur and for a language to die. It's happening to lots of local languages right now. Idyllic? By no means. It's the linguistic fieldworker's nightmare.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: altamix

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 10:12 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] countries, languages , XX! centuries

I have not so much ideea about schools in Gaul, Iberia, Pannonia or Moesia. But i cann definitely tell you in Dacia there were no schools.At least not in the roman time. In a way it is amassing to imagine yourself this pitoresque picture: - a group of conquested peasants beeing somewhere in a castrum for some bussines and talking with the soldiers. When they come back to thier land and next day they are going for agricultural purpouses off door, they will have to exercise among them the words "heard " from the soldiers. I intentionately say just soldiers and not "latin soldiers" due the compositions of the roman legions where there the people barely could understand latin:))) It is funny, and i guess it never happend.. But until we will have a contrary probe we have to addmit, yes indeed, the romans conquested some teritorries, they took all the people, made love with all the women, gave birth to a new genration, at the day-time they were working hard and in evening they were all together on a nice place, learning latin .. Too idilic to be true:)))