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

--- On Tue, 11/4/08, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...> wrote:

> From: Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>
> Subject: [tied] Re: Scandinavia and the Germanic tribes such as Goths, Vandals, Angli and Saxones.
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2008, 4:54 PM
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Arnaud Fournet"
> <fournet.arnaud@...>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > If I have to choose,
> > I prefer English, no doubt.
> > This language had the luck to be far enough from Latin
> !
> > and the luck to be close enough.
> >
> > Arnaud.
> >
> > ============
> >
>
> 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

Depends on the level. Both have proven themselves at the highest level yet English has managed to function as a lingua franca at the lowest levels. True, there are French creole languages but they are never regarded as French, while English creoles are generally seen as English dialect. It is telling that there are English creoles in places never ruled by English-speaking powers.