Re: My Final Thoughts on English

In a message dated 6/30/01 1:08:12 PM, romilly@EGL.NET writes:

<< Perhaps the Chinese model would be appropriate:  let the individual areas
go

their own way, but retain the traditional spelling for the written language.

That way, everyone could be unhappy about something, but not for

"imperialistic" reasons.   Added advantage:  those who aspire to

international acceptance would have to learn some historical linguistics, to

understand how their particular vernacular relates to the written form :-) >>

    Ha, ha, ha, ha!

<<Seems to me that's how it works at the moment:  nobody has any difficulty

reading these e-mails-- but if we were to be writing them in our individual

varieties, Omigod.


If every region develops its own orthography, then the English-speaking

world will end up like the Romance/Germanic/Slavic/ Indic worlds; and there

goes "English" as an international vehicle.  Though whether that could

happen in this age of instant communication and easy travel is another

matter.>>

    That's one of those questions that makes me think every so often.  Is
there any linguist who's written a paper (preferably online) about the
affects of instant communication on language, and especially, language
change?  Or is it too soon to say anything at all?

-David