Newsgroups: alt.politics.ec,sci.lang
From: philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk (Phil Hunt)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!uunet!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!peernews.demon.co.uk!storcomp.demon.co.uk!philip
Subject: Re: English as the European language (not) (Re: Languages in the EC)
References: <MATTHEW.95Feb10133047@baloo.cpd.ntc.nokia.com> <3hgv54$4dc@agate.berkeley.edu> <3htc6g$1l2@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>
Reply-To: philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk
X-Newsreader: Demon Internet Simple News v1.27
Lines: 27
X-Posting-Host: storcomp.demon.co.uk
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1995 01:33:59 +0000
Message-ID: <792898439snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk>
Sender: usenet@demon.co.uk

In article <3htc6g$1l2@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>
           etg10@cl.cam.ac.uk "Edmund Grimley-Evans" writes:
> > lose their effectiveness.  As I have said before, English as a
> > European language need not be identical with UK English, any more
> > than Indian English is.
> 
> Can you imagine "English as a European language" being a standardised
> literary language independent of UK English

Yes, easily. For example all verbs except "be", "have" and "do", and
all nouns, could be made regular.

> and sufficiently different
> from it so that speakers of UK English have no great advantage in
> learning it?

If it was *that* different, it would not be mutually intelligible with
British English, so calling it "English" would be a misnomer. A bit
like renaming "Esperanto", "European English".

> If not, then this point, though perhaps interesting in
> its own right, is not relevant to the present discussion.
> 

-- 
Phil Hunt...philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk
Majority rule for Britain!
