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From: Dan.Pop@cern.ch (Dan Pop)
Subject: Re: Why is France systematically excluded?
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Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 11:44:53 GMT
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In <4usomu$cdr@nuntius.u-net.net> Richard Buttrey <richard@buttrey.u-net.com> writes:

>Roger Thijs <rthijs@innet.be> wrote:
>>Why is the French Republic systematically excluded
>>from international linguistic treaties?
>>- - - - -
>>(since this texts goes to several newsgroups
>>and lists, it is in English; sorry for the inconvenience)
>>- - - - -
>>This message refers to the international treaties
>>referring to the spelling reforms of the German
>>and Dutch languages.
>
>Perhaps more fundamentally why is there a need for international 
>linguistic treaties at all? Surely the whole point about a language is 
>that it is constantly changing and evolving. At least English is. It has 
>accommodated changes, many derived from other foreign languages without 
>any regulatory framework. 
>
>Isn't this just symptomatic of an ever regulatory official mind?

I don't think so.  From time to time, the natural evolution of a language
has to "officialized".  This is especially important for languages spoken
in many countries, which evolve in different directions, but need a
common reference, to make the communication between people speaking
the "same" language possible.  German is an excellent example, because
there are so many incompatible "flavours" that an official reference is
the only way to ensure that a Swiss German will be able to talk to a
Romanian German or an Alsatian German.

Dan
--
Dan Pop
CERN, CN Division
Email: Dan.Pop@cern.ch 
Mail:  CERN - PPE, Bat. 31 R-004, CH-1211 Geneve 23, Switzerland
