Re: "Dutch English"; language death on Phalera [was Re: Active and Passive please help]

Thomas R. Wier wrote:

> Quoting Almaran Dungeonmaster <dungeonmaster@...>:
>
> > Padraic Brown wrote:
> > > > It might be a little hard, since "to be called" in the current
> > > > meaning is inherently passive in English.
> > > > However, other  languages have an active verb for naming things.
> > >
> > > Hunh? What's wrong with "I called it X" in your dialect?
> >
> > Well, my dialect is nether-english (which is the english spoken by
> > people whose first language is Dutch). But you're right of course,
> > "to call" in the meaning of "to name" is also possible in the active
> > voice in english.
>
> Which brings up an interesting question:  how many people from the
> Netherlands speak English in their daily life?  IIRC, something like
> 80% of people there can speak *some*, at least.
I don't know the exact numbers, but 80% sounds reasonable. English has been
accepted as the language of business and science in The Netherlands. All my
university books and readers (including those written by Dutch professors)
are in English, english programms on TV are subtitled in Dutch. There is
also a trend among many young dutch people to have an aversion against
translated English: voiced-over movies are for little children, translated
novels are for stupid people etc. This is not absolute, but among my friends
(between 18 and 25, below academic level of schooling) I see this behaviour
often.

English is quickly on its way of becoming a kinf of second official language
in The Netherlands (and, of course, there are pursitans who want to keep our
language free from foreign influences and bla bla bla....)

Maarten

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