Re: NATLANG: English Homework - Keeping alive languages of minorities?

Hey Sally! <-- My non-English bias creeps in here again ;-)

I hope you don't mind when I post this directly to the list?

On Sunday 06 March 2005 18:47 +0100, Sally Caves wrote:

 > Hi, Carsten; I only started reading this now.  If it's
 > not too late, I would suggest that you follow both
 > David's and especially Roger's advice.

It's not tooooo late (9:12pm currently), but I simply
deleted these passages as they're actually not really
important and just confuse the whole thing. Actually,
I just searched for an explanation without knowing
 what I want to say. I should have better not written
these two paragraphs right from the beginning. If
my teacher asks for reasons why I think that it's better
not to let languages die out, I'll consider what you other
suggested. Thank you for your critisism!

 > I'm also an
 > English professor who helps students organize their
 > thoughts.  If this throws a monkey wrench into your
 > essay, then just delete this message; it's just a
 > suggestion.  But it seems to me that you get sidetracked
 > by the Americas when you should be focussing on Europe,
 > as the essay prompt invites

I got offtopic. Yes. And I'm ashamed for that, because as I
said above, it wouldn't have been necessary.

 > you to, and that what you need is an organizing "thesis":
 > > >> In *your* opinion, do you think that languages with
 > > >> a relatively small number of speakers should be kept
 > > >> alive in a united Europe?
 >
 > NOTE THAT THE PROMPT ASKS YOU TO FOCUS ON EUROPE.  YOU
 > CAN USE AMERICA AS A POINT OF DEPARTURE, BUT IN MY HUMBLE
 > OPINION, YOU SHOULD KEEP THAT PART BRIEF.

See above.

 > > |     I think it is a pity when a language dies out.
 > > | Languages have always to do with culture, which means
 > > | when a language dies out, a major part of the culture
 > > | if not even the culture itself the language belongs
 > > | to has died.
 >
 > SO FAR, GOOD!!  DO YOU WANT TO GIVE AN EXAMPLE?  WHAT
 > ABOUT THE CASE OF IRISH?  YOU MIGHT MENTION THE DEATH OF
 > CORNISH AND MANX.  IS GAELIC GOING IN THAT DIRECTION?
 > DID YOUR CLASS DISCUSS THIS?

Yes, we already discussed this, but only very, very briefly.

 > > |    Europe, different than the Americas, has a big
 > > | number
 >
 > YOU WANT "LARGE NUMBER" (just more idiomatic)
 >
 > > | of cultures sharing a comparably small area. North
 > > | and South America lack this long history because they
 > > | have been settled by Europeans only since the 16th
 > > | century.
 >
 > OKAY, GOOD; YOU START AN INTERESTING COMPARISON, HERE.
 > BUT YOU NEED TO TELL US WHY YOU ARE GOING IN THIS
 > DIRECTION.

Argh! Damnit.

 > > | These colonies could of course not develop the same
 > > | kind of variety there is in Europe after a few
 > > | thousand years of historical development in just four
 > > | hundred years.
 >
 > WELL...THIS GETS COMPLICATED; BECAUSE YOUR READER NOW
 > EXPECTS YOU TO TALK ABOUT THE DUTCH, AND THE FRENCH...
 > AND WHY THE ENGLISH PREVAILED, ETC. AND YOU GET AWAY FROM
 > THE QUESTION ABOUT EUROPE.

I see.

 > > | Europe is not only rich and varied of cultures, but
 > > | also of languages.
 >
 > GOOD; BACK TO EUROPE.  AND BECAUSE THESE LANGUAGES
 > ORIGINATED THERE.  THIS IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE
 > CONQUEST OF A LESS ADVANCED CULTURE  BY A MORE ADVANCED
 > CULTURE (EXCEPT YOU DO HAVE THE ROMAN PROBLEM!).
 > SUGGESTION: A BETTER EXAMPLE MIGHT BE THE COLONIZATION OF
 > BRITAIN BY FIRST THE ROMANS, THEN THE ANGLES AND THE
 > SAXONS.  THE NORMANS INVADED BUT ENGLISH MANAGED TO
 > PREVAIL.  HAVE YOU BEEN STUDYING THIS?

This topic usually comes in English in 5th or 6th grade or
so, it's quite a while since then. In History, the main
focus is on the European mainland, IIRC English is only
important when industrialisation starts in the 1700's.

 > [ snipping very, very much helpful stuff ]

 > Just trying to help!  Good luck with this, Carsten.  Your
 > English is excellent!!  Just a few idiomatic
 > awkwardnesses here and there, but you are so far beyond
 > my spoken German!!

Heh, thank you. At least *one* glimpse of light ... can you
acutally say that in English? "Wenigstens *ein*
Lichtblick?"

Yours,
Carsten

--
Edatamanon le matahanarà nangimoea eibenem ena
15-A7-58-11-2-17-3B ena Curan Tertanyan.
» http://www.beckerscarsten.de/?conlang=ayeri

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