"As a result of this, the french language is dying" Académie française are still fighting a rear-guard action to preserve French. And losing on many fronts. Le weekend being the famous example. It was set up to give the country a single means of communication, and has not failed there. Despite: Basque, Breton (Gallo & Roman), Alsace (German) still being spoken. As the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary pointed out somewhat to the effect: "a language has a very well defined centre, and a periphery that is more and more nebulous the further it goes out". some English words survive despite an onslaught for the colonies. Take faucet - in proper English that is a wooden device for regulating/dispensing liquid from a barrel. And to get it into the barrel you tap it. It is easy to see how the words stuck in the colonies, whereas lazy Brits favoured a single syllable appellation. BUT an English billion has shrunk to an American billion - probably because commerce is worldly, and water is personal.
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