Re: THEORY: Languages divided by politics and religion

In a message dated 2000/05/25 08:52:17 PM, Nik wrote:

>One wonders, if the South had won the Civil War, and the two sides
>remained in bitter animosity, would they claim to speak different
>languages?  Or, if America and Britain had remained bitter enemies after
>the Rev. War, would we claim to speak American, rather than English?
>
    Would be intriguing to imagine the divergence of English in such
alternative histories... esp'ly if one nation-state [mayhaps the Confederate
States of America] purposely instituted a lexical AND orthographic reform...
perhaps in a nationalistic drive to "democratize" & combat both White & Black
illiteracy.

    zHANg