English! English! When did America stop speaking English?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by molly bloom


Songs about 'Levin and his flying machine' and with 'Yiddish' swing (big band swing with what sounds like Turkish jazz influenced clarinet over the top).

Klezmer? Or big band influenced klezmer? (Klezmer is said to be influenced by Roma music)

[Japher]

Is there a big difference between spanish and portugese as a language? It always surprises me that.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
I guess her Latin isnt very good. Odd, considering how many Latinos there are where she lives, eh what?

She should ask Dan Quayle to help her brush up.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by molly bloom
I think if you can correct Tiamat on 'per say' should be 'per se', I'll slip in an 'aggravate' does not mean irritate, it means to worsen, or increase the gravity of (as in a penalty or burden).

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=aggravate

"2. To rouse to exasperation or anger; provoke. See Synonyms at annoy."

[Ramo]

Is there a big difference between spanish and portugese as a language? It always surprises me that.

They're both derivitives of Latin (like French and Italian, as well as other Iberian languages like Catalan).

[Ramo]

And bilingualism.

We might as well all learn Spanish since the proportion of Spanish speakers is only going to increase in this country.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ramo
And bilingualism.

We might as well all learn Spanish since the proportion of Spanish speakers is only going to increase in this country.

Americans should learn more foreign languages. I dont think we should necessarily all learn Spanish, as most Spanish speaking immigrants will learn English, eventually.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by molly bloom


In any case the whole 'official English' thing strikes me as being a waste of time- demographically, Spanish speakers are going to win out.

Given that there are hundreds of millions of people from non-Spanish speaking countries whod love to come here, I hardly see how its inevitable if we dont want it to be.

[Ramo]

Geography.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ramo
Geography.

we've been sitting here for 200 hundred years. Lots of countries dont pick up the language of their neighbors via immigration - in fact are there any that HAVE? I think the implicit argument is DEMOGRAPHY, and we can trump that by changing immigration policy to favor immigrants from non-Spanish speaking countries - IF that were to become an issue, but I dont think it will, since Spanish speakers are as quick to learn English as other immigrants.

[Ramo]

So how are we going to stop Latin Americans from coming into this country? Put our army on the border?

In any case, I happen to believe immigration barriers to be immoral.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=aggravate

"2. To rouse to exasperation or anger; provoke. See Synonyms at annoy."

Well, I suppose I should make allowances for colloquial American English.


'4. To exasperate; to provoke; to irritate. [Colloq.]

If both were to aggravate her parents, as my brother and sister do mine. --Richardson (Clarissa). '

http://www.wordiq.com/dictionary/Aggravate

'Using aggravate to mean annoy is considered acceptable by 68 percent of the American Heritage Dictionary's usage panel (especially in speech and informal writing). However, for formal writing, some writers and editors advocate substituting other words for this meaning. There are many to choose from.'

http://grcpublishing.grc.nasa.gov/WordOfWeekArchive/WEEK30.CFM

Right back atcha!


'Given that there are hundreds of millions of people from non-Spanish speaking countries whod love to come here, I hardly see how its inevitable if we dont want it to be.'

l.o.t.m.

That 'we' sounds a tad exclusivist and proscriptive.

A higher birthrate amongst people from Spanish speaking communities and backgrounds is what I'm getting at. And I don't foresee Nuer or Mon immigrants outstripping the number of Spanish speaking American born citizens any time soon.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


Lots of countries dont pick up the language of their neighbors via immigration - in fact are there any that HAVE?

England?


Used to be a country which spoke a Celtic language. Thanks to immigration it turned into a country speaking a variety of Germanic dialects, and in the north east has a higher preponderance of words from Norse thanks to immigration from the Vikings.

In any case, Spanish was spoken in California and Texas long before English, similarly French in Louisiana.

Who assimilates to whom and why?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by molly bloom


England?


Used to be a country which spoke a Celtic language. Thanks to immigration it turned into a country speaking a variety of Germanic dialects, and in the north east has a higher preponderance of words from Norse thanks to immigration from the Vikings.

In any case, Spanish was spoken in California and Texas long before English, similarly French in Louisiana.

Who assimilates to whom and why?

All above example involve military conquest, with immigration as a follow up, though I'll admit in the case of the Germanic movement into England SOME immigration preceded conquest. Ditto your example from North America.

Any examples of a country adopting a neighbors language from migration ALONE, with no conquest?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ramo
So how are we going to stop Latin Americans from coming into this country? Put our army on the border?

In any case, I happen to believe immigration barriers to be immoral.

Well, if we had no immigration barriers at all we would certain NOT become a mainly Spanish speaking country, since the number of Indians, Chinese, Bengalis, Africans etc would soon drive the wage level down to the point where this country would not be attractive to most Latin Americans.

And surely you dont think that current barriers have NO impact?? Presumably a tighter limit would require stronger barriers, but not infinitely strong barriers. We're NOT talking about ending Spanish speaking migration, but limiting it - and not by much if we are also INCREASING immigration from elsewhere.

Not that I think any of the above is very likely, for the reasons ive already mentioned. Once again people, hispanics in the US learn English, at the same rate across generations as other immigrants.

Why is it that everyone from antiimmigrant paleocons to pro multicultural anarchists cant seem to get this?