Re: Scandinavia and the Germanic tribes such as Goths, Vandals, Angl

From: Arnaud Fournet
Message: 61380
Date: 2008-11-04

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Jarrette" <anjarrette@...>
>>
>> ============
>>
>
> Awfully surprising that you would say this. Why not French, which has
> enjoyed the status that English now (temporarily?) enjoys? Is it
> because of grammatical gender? Apart from this (which is probably
> counterbalanced by English orthography and pronunciation
> peculiarities) I think French and English are basically equal in ease
> and suitability as international languages.
>
> Andrew
>
============

How courteous you are, Andrew !

But the truth is English has been the only _real_ international language
since I guess 1925.
My own criterion for this date is the thesis about Old Chinese written by
Kalgren (a Swede)
He first wrote his thesis in French but the sequel is in English.
Something changed in between.
Even though the interest of some English-speakers for French tends to blur
that reality.
And I'm grateful for Churchill that he backed France's position in the
aftermath of WW2.
Otherwise it would certainly be worse.
And maybe G.W. Bush has also contributed to making any thing English or
American unpalatable to most people on this planet, including Americans
themselves...
But we'll see the result of his endeavors tomorrow.

Arnaud.