Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Advanced English to become official!

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Monday, April 4, 2005, 15:35
Pascal A. Kramm wrote:

>On Sat, 2 Apr 2005 12:25:16 -0700, Muke Tever <hotblack@...> wrote: > > > >>Pascal A. Kramm <pkramm@...> wrote: >> >> >>>On Sat, 2 Apr 2005 09:56:57 +0100, Joe <joe@...> wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>>>Problem is, Pascal's German, so it's bound to be imperfect. >>>> >>>> >>>Oh my, what an ugly arrogant attitude >:( >>>I can really hear the contempt in your voice... Why don't you say right >>>away: "Germans are lower than dirt." >>> >>> >>I don't think it would have to do with your ethnicity, merely with that >>you are working with a language non-native to you. If an American-English >>speaker attempted a spelling reform of German, similar remarks could be >>expected. >> >> > >If it were so, uch a concern could surely be expressed more cosiderately >without making such an ugly ad-hominem attack: > >"Problem is, Pascal's German, so it's bound to be imperfect." -> that's a >rather crude and very unpolite sweeping stake about all Germans being >retarded (or otherwise being mentally incapable) and thus it's impossible >that they can come up with something really good. > >
It *is* so, as I have said. Frankly, you're simply making up ways to get offended. Not only that, you proceeded to make a generalisation about Americans, on the basis that I was one, on the assumption that they're arrogant.
>About being a native speaker or not - that doesn't say ANYTHING about the >proficiency of the person in question! It's very well possible that a >non-native speaker is better than a native one. Just to name an example: >recently, all native speakers of British English at Oxford university (!) >were tasked to complete a simple "Basic Proficiency test for non-native >speakers" - originally intended to make sure that non-native speakers have >at least a basic grasp of English. However, a whopping 20% of the NATIVE >speakers miserably FAILED in this simple test! > > >
We're not discussing the grammar, we're discussing the phonology. Which, since it is unstandardised in English, *has* no right or wrong besides usage. The purpose of a spelling reform is to more accurately reflect sounds in a given language.
>About me not being able to take critic - I can, but not when it's initiated >with a personal attack at me (and not only me, but all Germans in General). >You can't expect me to sit still in that case! > > >
Of course it wasn't a personal attack against you. I was just pointing out that, as a non-native speaker, any odd things in your spelling reform could be accounted for by your being a non-native speaker of English. If you choose to take that as a personal attack, it's your problem, not mine. And a hell of a lot of Germnas on this list have failed to be offended by this comment.