English (United States)

[Sandman]

Originally posted by lord of the mark

Pitcairn was settled, IIUC, in the late 1700's, a period of substantial change in the English language, esp in the port cities on both sides of the Atlantic (since the Pitcairn islanders were sailors, Id think that important) so Im not sure why we would assume that Pitcairn dialect is closer to the English of the 1600's than places that were settled in the 1600s.

I'm assuming that they would retain an archaic accent along with their archaic nouns, i.e. musket for gun. A big assumption, although I'm not seeing anything better for 'Southern' being the most like C17th English.

[Drake Tungsten]

I believe troll with the occassional smart comment thrown

All my comments on this thread have been smart. You non-Yanks are just too wrapped in your love for lesser English dialects to listen to reason.

Actually what he said was "A shprakh iz a diyalekt mit an armey un a flot"

I know, but I figured I should post the English translation. People here are having a hard enough time understanding the import of that. Making them have to deal with Yiddish as well might destroy their fragile little minds...

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

I believe troll with the occassional smart comment thrown

All my comments on this thread have been smart. You non-Yanks are just too wrapped in your love for lesser English dialects to listen to reason.

Actually what he said was "A shprakh iz a diyalekt mit an armey un a flot"

I know, but I figured I should post the English translation. People here are having a hard enough time understanding the import of that. Making them have to deal with Yiddish as well might destroy their fragile little minds...

dont you just hate it when youre loading up a computer program, and the only option for Yiddish is Yiddish(Lithuanian dialect) I mean dont you just feel oppressed as a Galitizianer?

[Drake Tungsten]

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Bill3000


Actually, India has 23 offical languages. However, the government uses Hindi and English for offical purposes, although Hindi has a de jure priority.

Since Hindi is the de jure language of India then Hindi is the primary language and English is only a secondary language. The US prints many official documents in Spanish but no one would suggest that Spanish is an official language of the USA.

India is therefore excluded from the vote.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Elok


I think the whole invading a country thing went against us too. And the torture stuff. But yes, I probably did a great deal to give the US a terrible, terrible reputation by saying things that make you have a hissy fit on an internet forum.

EDIT: Waitaminit, why am I even getting dragged into this at all? I've made one (1) post in this thread prior to this point, and that was pretty obviously a joke, and an outlandish one at that. Or did you think I was honestly suggesting Britain's elite military forces spend time and money embarrassing a foreign head of state? Not to mention throwing away a perfectly delectable hunk of meat...

I don't know what kind of bug you've got up your butt for me in particular. Perhaps you want to have a silly Asher/Agathon style prolonged-catfighting feud? If so, I'm not interested.

Could be something to do with prior example too, perhaps?

And hissy fit? Talk about melodramatic

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Ha! You're one to talk.



The fact that you can't avoid responding to the most basic of trolls?

Oooh, the schoolboy has been unleashed against me. I'm scared!

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Since Hindi is the de jure language of India then Hindi is the primary language and English is only a secondary language. The US prints many official documents in Spanish but no one would suggest that Spanish is an official language of the USA.

But English is a declared official language of India. In fact, the USA, AFAIK, has no "declared" official language, and therefore, by your logic, should be excluded from the vote

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Tattila the Hun
China propably has the largest, US the most technically advanced, Finland the overall best.

You forgot the "Uninformed Militia of the United States of Amerrica', which includes every male age 18 and over. That's a force of over 100 million, which is much larger than the PRA.

[lord of the mark]

what would it mean to say that someone alive today speaks shakespearean English? The Bard grew up in Avon, lived in London, where he mixed with individuals of different classes, knew some Latin and Greek (though not enough to satisfy some people) etc. IE he spoke his own idiolect, which, IIUC, is one of the hot new ideas in linguistics - we all have individual mixes of pronunciation, usage, etc that are unique given our own life experience. Probably not even Shakespeares actors spoke English 100% exactly like Shakespeare did.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by LordShiva


But English is a declared official language of India. In fact, the USA, AFAIK, has no "declared" official language, and therefore, by your logic, should be excluded from the vote

Declared official in what manner?

The key question is what language does your government use internally and what language is taught as the primary language in your schools? Which language are students taught first by the majority of schools? Which language do the people speak amongst themselves.

According to the CIA factbook English is an "associate" language but Hindi is the official one. I would wonder if there is not even some legal document passed soon after independence naming Hindi as the official language. Considering the sentiment of the ruling party at the time I would expect there to be such a document.

According to the "Gateway to the Government of India" webpage there are 22 recognized languages enumerated in the Constitution of India. English is not one of them.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove


You forgot the "Uninformed Militia of the United States of Amerrica', which includes every male age 18 and over. That's a force of over 100 million, which is much larder than the PRA.

Much larder? Are you saying American men have an obesity problem?

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Declared official in what manner?

The key question is what language does your government use internally and what language is taught as the primary language in your schools? Which language are students taught first by the majority of schools? Which language do the people speak amongst themselves.

Official documents are released in English and Hindi. English and Hindi are the languages used primarily in parliament.

Schools teach in either Hindi or English, or in the regional language; there are probably more English-language schools than there are schools of any one particular regional language.

Significant numbers of people speak any of several tens of languages between themselves. English is one of them.

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
According to the "Gateway to the Government of India" webpage there are 22 recognized languages enumerated in the Constitution of India. English is not one of them.

Those 22 languages are the languages recognized apart from Hindi and English (notice how both of them are missing from the list).

Apart from Hindi and English, a total of 22 other languages are recognized as official languages by the Constitution of India:

1. Assamese — official language of Assam
2. Bengali — official language of Tripura and West Bengal
3. Bodo — official language of Assam
4. Dogri — official language of Jammu and Kashmir
5. Gondi — language of the Gond tribals of the Gondwana (part of the northern Deccan plateau) comprising Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh.
6. Gujarati — language of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Gujarat
7. Kannada — official language of Karnataka
8. Kashmiri — official language of Jammu and Kashmir
9. Konkani — official language of Goa
10. Malayalam — official language of Kerala, Lakshadweep, Pondicherry
11. Maithili - official language of Bihar
12. Manipuri or Meithei — official language of Manipur
13. Marathi — official language of Maharashtra
14. Nepali — official language of Sikkim
15. Oriya — official language of Orissa
16. Punjabi — official language of Punjab and Chandigarh, second official language of Delhi and Haryana
17. Sanskrit — language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, required teaching in many schools
18. Santali - language of the Santhal tribals of the Chota Nagpur Plateau (comprising the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and Chattisgarh)
19. Sindhi - language of the Sindhi community
20. Tamil — official language of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry
21. Telugu — official language of Andhra Pradesh
22. Urdu — official language of Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh

[LordShiva]

From Wikipedia (yeah, I know)

The Constitution of India has stipulated the usage of Hindi and English to be the two languages of communication for the Central (Federal) government. The state governments use their own language along with English for communication with the Central government. For example, the central government sends its information in Hindi and English to the state of Karnataka and this state communicates back in Kannada and English. India has a list of 23 official languages (including Hindi and English). These languages are entitled to representation on the Official Language Commission, and a candidate in an examination conducted for national government service may opt to take the exam in any of these languages.

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
what would it mean to say that someone alive today speaks shakespearean English? The Bard grew up in Avon, lived in London, where he mixed with individuals of different classes, knew some Latin and Greek (though not enough to satisfy some people) etc. IE he spoke his own idiolect, which, IIUC, is one of the hot new ideas in linguistics - we all have individual mixes of pronunciation, usage, etc that are unique given our own life experience. Probably not even Shakespeares actors spoke English 100% exactly like Shakespeare did.

They may have in a way though. I find that people that spend a lot of time together start to pick up eachother's minor quirks.

My own accent has changed dramatically. One day I will (re)acquire a good English accent!