--- In qalam@egroups.com, "Steven Loomis" <srl@...> wrote:

> I hear a lot of comments in the USA from people who speak in terms

of

> "standard" versus "foreign" alphabets, meaning latin versus
> non-latin. For example, "Oh good, Maltese is written using
> the normal [sic] alphabet." (Even though non-English letters are
> used.)

This is similar to the notion, held by many North Americans I have
met, that only foreigners have accents. I have not encountered this
quite so often lately, but when I first moved to Canada people would
say 'Oh, you have an accent!' I'd grown up in Wales where it was
commonly understood that everyone has an accent.

I think both notions -- that only foreigners have accents and the
Latin alphabet is the 'normal' one -- are simply symptoms of
ignorance and poor education. Once you explain to someone what an
accent is, or what an alphabet is, and expose them to something of
the diversity of language, both spoken and written, it is impossible
for them to maintain the errant notions.