tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 31 07:08:29 1995
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Re: Word for `English'
On Tue, 31 Jan 1995, A.Appleyard wrote:
> David E G Sturm <[email protected]> wrote:-
> > ... The computer probably has ensured that English will supplant most other
> > languages in the way Latin texts once continued Latin's predominence in
> > church and government...
>
> (1) `ensured' should be `assumed'???
> (2) English may be the dominant Earth language some way into the future when
> the Federation will be established and the Star Trek events or equivalents
> thereof will happen; but we live now, when Earth still has many official
> languages. We will have to keep on saying e.g. `England Hol' etc.
(1) ensure v. To make certain of, insure
I'll go a step further and say "guarantee". Only because the Japanese
and German technical communities; the international accumulation of
physicists and chemists; Western industry and commerce; and the language's
ability to take words and phrases from other languages have made English a
lingua franca that would be (and will be) extremely tough to be put aside.
It's a fait accompl.... See? Well, at least until the next expansion of
>tlhIngan Hol< shows it will become the next lingua franca. :-)
(2) I'd be more likely to say >*'ameriq'a' Hol< before >*'englaD Hol<.
Admittedly, the British Empire did much to spread the seeds of English
language around the globe; however, it took us Yanks to really foul
things up and spread it around due to what I mention in my response (1).
Moreover, Star Trek as produced has come essentially 99% in one dialect of
a language, American Standard English; with about 1% of the rest in
>tlhIngan<. As much as it distresses me that a more rationally *written*
language isn't winning the linguistic war on Earth, Star Trek is a
creature of English. And thus if someone refers to Federation Standard,
apparently it is English. Again, maybe our descendants will be lucky and
this will change, but looks like that in the 23d and 24th centuries, even
if we're still on this Earth, that English will be everywhere. If so, I
at least hope that some minor spelling reform happens to make it easier
to learn to read phonetically....
<[email protected]> >1 910 759 5532, fax -6142< "Pardon me, but if I must
David E G Sturm, Laboratory Manager operate in a vacuum, can
Wake Forest University Department of Physics I at least have a little
Box 7507 Reynolda Station, Winston-Salem NC 27109 ether to calm my nerves?"