Re: A language by any other name

[Nick Phillips <nwp@lemon-computing.com>]

On Fri, Sep 14, 2001 at 10:47:18AM +0200, Wouter Verhelst wrote:

> What I meant to say is simple: you can't know what language people speak
> by having a look at the country they live in. Thus, the english do _not_,
> by definition, speak english.

I never said that you could.

You're splitting hairs that aren't worth splitting. English is, by definition,
the language spoken by the English. That doesn't mean to say that for every
people there will be a similarly named language. And the fact that there is
not a similarly named language for every nationality does not in turn mean
that my assertion that English is by definition the language spoken by the
English is incorrect.

I also implied that it'd be rather more cunning to argue the toss about this
off-list than on. Still, you can't win 'em all...

-- 
Nick Phillips -- nwp@lemon-computing.com
You can create your own opportunities this week.  Blackmail a senior executive.