THEORY: An English Koine? (was: Vowel shift (was: THEORY: Storage Vs.Computation))
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, June 22, 1999, 5:55 |
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"Raymond A. Brown" wrote:
> Indeed not - I've known of a case where a Moroccan & Iraqi student of mine
> just couldn't understand one another's spoken language, tho they both
> shared standard literary Arabic.
Yes, my neighbor, a Lebanese, has told me that he can't understand
dialects like Moroccan.
> But Arabic was spead over a large area
> centuries ago with the spread of Islam; intercommunication by ordinary
> people was difficult and pre-Arabic speech habits were able to interfere
> with Arabic in some areas.
And, quite likely, pre-Islaamic dialects were involved. It's highly
unlikely that the Islaamic warriors spoke a uniform dialect.
> Yes - and American English is the dominant partner.
Yes, he did mention that too.
--
Happy that Nation, - fortunate that age, whose history is not diverting
-- Benjamin Franklin
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