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Re: CHAT: Subtitles (was: Re: Proto-Romance)

From:Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>
Date:Friday, March 26, 2004, 6:35
From:    Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>
> And not only the language, but usually the flag, the > currency, the political system, the beer brands and > much more.
The phenomenon you refer to is a very European one. For the vast majority of the people of the world, especially those in postcolonial situations, borders are historically meaningless. (This is even the case within countries. In the US, the original states were real communities, and had strong senses of identity. Western states were in most cases demarcated not by historically salient cultural barriers, but by lines on a map. So, there are really big differences within some states, such as Missouri, where the southern part of the state was settled by a completely different set of people and economic system than the northern part. In that case, this is one reason why Missouri is such a swing state when it comes to federal elections.) ========================================================================= Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally, Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of 1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter. Chicago, IL 60637