Re: World Lingos

At 1:30 am -0400 27/8/00, Nik Taylor wrote:
>Mike Adams wrote:
>> But Portugese and Italian are combined with European Spanish
>> especially are basically the same lingo, just for political reasons are
>> called Languages, versus Dielects.
>
>Portuguese is pretty intelligible with Spanish, especially easy for
>Portuguese-speakers to understand Spanish, a little more difficult the
>other way around,
Easier if it's read rather than spoken, also, methinks.  The two parted
company a few centuries and are distinctive enough to consitute different
languages.

>but Italian and Spanish are definitely distinct
>languages.
Yes, indeed they.  One might just as well say that English & Dutch are
"basically the same lingo, just for political reasons are called Languages,
versus Dielects."

>  But, Italian would
>probably remain distinct for some time.  I see no likelihood of Italian
>dying out any time soon, in a few centuries, who knows?  But not any
>time soon.
Indeed, why should it?  It is IMHO a very beautiful language; as a
Latinist, I can understand it, when spoken, far more readily than I can
understand Spanish.

[....]
>
>> I will admit there maybe some room for inclusion, but I was basically
>> going on realistic current conditions,
Oh?

In Mike's first letter he wrote:
At 9:08 pm -0800 26/8/00, Mike Adams wrote:
>Some are former international lingos, but are
>on their way out, such as French, it is still used alot, but what future
>does it have?
Only a very brave person (or foolish person) would venture to say such a
thing in France :)
My experience of French people over very, very many years convinces me that
as long as there is a place called France and people who call themselves
français or françaises the French language will remain.  One thing I find
most French people are proud of is their language.

[....]
>
>My guess is that a few languages (probably pretty close to your list)
>will be used as regional lingua francas (as, indeed, they've already
>started to become), and a large number of very small languages will die,
Languages die very hard.  Welsh not merely survives, but has now gained
official recognition for the first time in centuries and there is no
shortage of people who want to learn it.   Gaelic, I understand, is
experiencing some sort of revival in the Scottish Highlands.  And Cornish,
which just struggled on to the last century has now been revived and there
are now some who have Cornish as their first language.

Languages do not die easily.

>but most of the world's larger languages will survive for some time.
>
>> I know some possible over generalizations, but ... Is it realistic?
>
>I don't think so.
Nor do I think so.

Ray.



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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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