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From: donh@netcom.com (Don HARLOW)
Subject: Re: Single European Language
Message-ID: <donhDA72J9.D0x@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <690061730wnr@afin.demon.co.uk> <803065760snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk> <donhDA5A1H.Dx@netcom.com> <803163554snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 03:18:45 GMT
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Sender: donh@netcom5.netcom.com

philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk skribis en lastatempa afisxo <803163554snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk>:
>In article <donhDA5A1H.Dx@netcom.com> donh@netcom.com "Don HARLOW" writes:
>> philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk skribis en lastatempa afisxo
>>  <803065760snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk>:
>> >
>> >Consider that British Englisg and American English are more similar 
>> >now than they were 100 or 200 years ago. This is because of increased 
>> >interaction between Americans and Britons, because of improved
>> >communications.
>> >
>> Phil, could you document this? 
>
>Unfortunately I can't find a citation. I vaguely recall reading it 
>somewhere.
>
>I am sure the average British person communicates with Americans more 
>often now than 200 years ago, so I would expect it to be true.
>
This is very likely true for those on the net, but -- though some of us 
occasionally find this difficult to believe -- these make up only a tiny 
fraction of U.S. citizens and British subjects.

In fact, since in the 18th century most people living in the colonies 
had relatives in Britain and at least occasionally changed letters, I 
suspect that, on the average, the opposite is true. I don't know about 
how many British communicate with Americans today, but I do know that 
the number of Americans who have _ever_ communicated with anybody from 
Britain is not very large, as a fraction of the population.

>> I have never seen anything in the 
>> literature to indicate that Bostonian English of 1775 was less similar to 
>> London English of the same date than the two forms are today. In fact, in 
>> some fields terminology has diverged considerably between the two 
>> countries (e.g., in the language used to describe automobiles, including 
>> the pejorative).
>
>And is some fields, eg computers, terminology is the same.
>
'Twould be interesting to confirm this. I'm willing to accept that the 
computer dictionaries in both countries contain the same set of technical 
terms -- but I would also bet that the man-in-the-street terminology used 
to describe the functioning of the personal computer is already diverging 
in the two countries, as it did with automobiles. This is, however, an 
_a priori_ guess; maybe somebody can confirm this or disprove it?

-- 
Don HARLOW			donh@netcom.com
Esperanto League for N.A.       elna@netcom.com (800) 828-5944
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/el/elna/elna.html         Esperanto
http://www.webcom.com/~donh
