|
11 Nov 03 - 04:28 PM (#1051851) Subject: BS: official language of united Europe From: GUEST,Gerhard Schroeder Romano Prodi has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the state, rather than German which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, The Mussolini's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Austro-English" (or, if nobody will be offended, "Austrionics").. In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favor of the "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with the "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter. In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away. By the 4th yer peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru. |
|
11 Nov 03 - 04:32 PM (#1051853) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: McGrath of Harlow See this thread; RE: BS: English, California's official language |
|
11 Nov 03 - 04:47 PM (#1051858) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Mr Red And I thought we were going to have an erudite discussion on the reletive merits of Esperanto versus Romanch. On a minor point are we to adopt English English, American English, Australian English, NZ Pommese or Pidgeon English? |
|
11 Nov 03 - 05:37 PM (#1051887) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Peace No question about it. We have to adopt Canadian English. |
|
11 Nov 03 - 05:51 PM (#1051897) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: McGrath of Harlow The real Newfoundland version... That'd mean the English didn't have too unfair an advantage over the others, when it came to making head nor tail of it. |
|
11 Nov 03 - 06:28 PM (#1051920) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Peace 'ear, 'ear. It's my understanding that if you wake a Newfie up at three o'clock in the morning, he talks just like a Canadian! The 'accent' and lingo is catching. I was in Burin for a few weeks visiting some friends many years ago. Within two days I was saying things like "How bes you?" or "I bes good, my son." (The bes is pronounced bees.) But, no doubt the BBC will hold out for its version of the language. |
|
11 Nov 03 - 06:29 PM (#1051921) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Deda Europe had a common language for centuries. Latin. It wasn't any harder than English, certainly its spelling made 100% more sense. And the news of the world is still being broadcast in it right here -- well, in Finland. Probably there are still more Latin speakers (or at least readers) than Finnish speakers, outside of Finland itself. I am pretty sure that the Vatican's radio station also has at least one Latin radio broadcast on its regular calendar. |
|
11 Nov 03 - 06:45 PM (#1051934) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Gareth Actually I'am multilingual I speak - English Sarf Lundon and SWelsh all fluently I also have a smattering of - French Afrikaans oh yes - living in South Wales I use it more on the 'Cat than in real life - Welsh. Gareth |
|
11 Nov 03 - 06:47 PM (#1051936) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Jeanie Bring back *Proto-Indo-European, that's what I say ! - jeanie |
|
11 Nov 03 - 06:56 PM (#1051947) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Blackcatter Yiddish |
|
11 Nov 03 - 06:56 PM (#1051948) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Peace or Frisian |
|
11 Nov 03 - 06:57 PM (#1051949) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Snuffy Yeah, but how do you pronounce that * thing, Jeanie? |
|
11 Nov 03 - 07:04 PM (#1051955) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Peace Suum cuique, and then no one loses a language. If not, Yiddish is good. |
|
12 Nov 03 - 03:23 AM (#1052188) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Wilfried Schaum Pidgin English as spoken in Papua-Niugini. Its orthography was fixed by German missionaries when translating the Bible and is truly German. So this proud people has a hand in also. For the benefit of our even prouder neighbours we could add all words concerning love and wine. But to stop the jokes: While Latin (which I should prefer) is a synthetic language needing an elaborate morphology, English has changed to an analytic language which can discard most of its morphology. That will be the winner in the end. Wilfried |
|
12 Nov 03 - 07:26 AM (#1052271) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Ringer I think I agree, Wilfried. But not because it's analytical, just because it's the second language of just about everybody for whom it's not the first language. (And crosswords are more fun in an analytical language.) |
|
12 Nov 03 - 10:44 AM (#1052434) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Wilfried Schaum No, Ringer, that's not true: In the former French occupation zone of Germany (Rhine border) French is taught as the second language, and in the Soviet zone Russian was the second language, so also in all countries of the Warszaw Treaty Organization. Wilfried |
|
12 Nov 03 - 04:14 PM (#1052672) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Jeanie Snuffy - I've thought of a cunning plan for how to denote the * symbol when speaking Proto Indo-European. As the * symbol basically means "We really don't have much of a clue here, but to make it look impressive, we will put * before this concocted word", when you speak Proto-Indo-European, all you have to do to show the * is to shrug your shoulders dramatically and cast your eyes heavenward, in a sort-of Gallic manner. This should (maybe) help to appease any French people, who may be a bit peeved that French isn't the official European language! - jeanie |
|
12 Nov 03 - 07:53 PM (#1052799) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Snuffy *merci |
|
12 Nov 03 - 08:27 PM (#1052811) Subject: RE: BS: official language of united Europe From: Q (Frank Staplin) After heaing about the bees in Newfieland, I see that ebonics rules! |