3 ms·

My, what a collection of old chestnuts. * All his bugs are features: malleability and adaptability are English's strengths. * Most languages proliferate their

My, what a collection of old chestnuts. * All his bugs are features: malleability and adaptability are English's strengths. * Most languages proliferate their vocabulary to express all the needed shades of meaning, English uses Norman/German vocab to distinguish formality just as Japanese uses wago/kanji compounds. * Basic English's claim to a limited vocabulary only makes sense if you ignore the many implicit phrasal verbs that are even more inaccessible to learners that ten-dollar words are. * Relatively isolating morphology vs. more inflection isn't really a feature or a bug: it just correlates with a relative reliance on syntax rather than morphology to communicate. Interlingua is even more isolating IIRC. * Every language has ambiguities. * How is it possible to invent and impose an artificially created vowel system under the conditions where it is impossible to do something as simple as spelling reform? Spelling reform is surely needed, but the ferst wun to spell rite shall lede us. English has succeeded not only because it is the voice of global hegemony, but also the voice of global resistance. International English can't happen as something people create in a lab and try to impose in the world. It comes when you have a dictionary and grammar of Standard Indian English and Standard Filippino English and Standard Nigerian English, where people are comfortable speaking English to a non-American or non-British standard. It will be pluricentric.

fapjacks 12y ago
Your words are profound and spot on. This is excellent insight. Thank you.
scott_karana 12y ago
> malleability and adaptability are English's strengths My understanding of this point was that he sees this as both a strength and a weakness. It's a feature for expressiveness, and a bug for interoperability.
vacri 12y ago
To make a dot-point list, preface each line with four spaces. HN interprets that as 'code snippet' and keeps your formatting. On-topic, one thing I see missing when I read articles detracting from English is the benefits of English. Like not having genders for non-gendered things. This article talks of ambiguity in English, but in turn an English student doesn't have to figure out whether a pair of scissors is male or female.
- nitrogen 12y ago
  > To make a dot-point list, preface each line with four spaces. HN interprets that as 'code snippet' and keeps your formatting. If you do this, remember to add line breaks every 50 characters or so for mobile screens. * An alternative is adding two newlines between each bullet point, * so each point is in its own paragraph.
  - coolguy43 12y ago
    Thanks. You can talk to english native speaking at http://preply.com/en/skype/english-native-speakers http://preply.com/en/skype/english-native-speakers
ramblerman 12y ago
> English has succeeded not only because it is the voice of global hegemony, but also the voice of global resistance. The argument is not 'how' English got where it is, but if it is the best language for the job. Because it is the voice of global resistance? I don't even know what that means. It's akin to waving a flag and playing an anthem to make your point.

fapjacks 12y ago

Your words are profound and spot on. This is excellent insight. Thank you.

scott_karana 12y ago

> malleability and adaptability are English's strengths My understanding of this point was that he sees this as both a strength and a weakness. It's a feature for expressiveness, and a bug for interoperability.

vacri 12y ago

To make a dot-point list, preface each line with four spaces. HN interprets that as 'code snippet' and keeps your formatting. On-topic, one thing I see missing when I read articles detracting from English is the benefits of English. Like not having genders for non-gendered things. This article talks of ambiguity in English, but in turn an English student doesn't have to figure out whether a pair of scissors is male or female.

nitrogen 12y ago
> To make a dot-point list, preface each line with four spaces. HN interprets that as 'code snippet' and keeps your formatting. If you do this, remember to add line breaks every 50 characters or so for mobile screens. * An alternative is adding two newlines between each bullet point, * so each point is in its own paragraph.
- coolguy43 12y ago
  Thanks. You can talk to english native speaking at http://preply.com/en/skype/english-native-speakers http://preply.com/en/skype/english-native-speakers

ramblerman 12y ago

> English has succeeded not only because it is the voice of global hegemony, but also the voice of global resistance. The argument is not 'how' English got where it is, but if it is the best language for the job. Because it is the voice of global resistance? I don't even know what that means. It's akin to waving a flag and playing an anthem to make your point.