Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!scramble.lm.com!news.math.psu.edu!news.cse.psu.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.mathworks.com!news.duke.edu!news-server.ncren.net!news.interpath.net!sas!newshost.unx.sas.com!sdcmvs.mvs.sas.com!EURMXK
From: EURMXK@sdcmvs.mvs.sas.com
Subject: Re: Importance of German, etc. (Was: English: USA supreme court...)
Sender: MVS NNTP News Reader <NNMVS@sdcmvs.mvs.sas.com>
Message-ID: <19960422060712EURMXK@sdcmvs.mvs.sas.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 10:07:00 GMT
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: sdcmvs.mvs.sas.com
References: <Dq6tIL.90t@eskimo.com>
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.
Lines: 56

In article <Dq6tIL.90t@eskimo.com>,
rickw@eskimo.com (Richard Wojcik) writes:
 
>In article <KANZE.96Apr18211654@gabi.gabi-soft.fr>,
>J. Kanze <kanze@gabi-soft.fr> wrote:
>>In article <31724B3D.6856@eurocontrol.fr> Peter Hullah
>><Peter.Hullah@eurocontrol.fr> writes:
>>|> J. Kanze wrote:
>>|> >
>>|> > Now that German has become more important than English (at least on the
>>|> > European continent), everyone is wondering why the Alsacians can no
>>|> > longer speak Alsacian.  (An Alsacian speaker can learn fluent German
>>|> > very easily.  Much easier than a French speaker, at any rate.)
>>
No wonder since it's a dialectal variety of German. It's a sad fact,
though, that the number of dialect speakers is rapidly decreasing
despite the efforts of the "Cercle Rene' Schickele" and other
recent movements for bilingualism.
 
>>|> German may be more important than English in Alsace, but it isn't in Paris.
>>|> And I would be HIGHLY surprised to find it so in Rome, Madrid or Stockholm.
>>
>>Well, I've generally found German more useful than English in my travels
>>in Europe, although I haven't had the occasion to try either in Paris or
>>Rome...
>
>Interesting comment.  I can understand why the importance of German is
>increasing.  Germany dominates the European economy.  However, I have never
>heard anyone claim that it is actually more widely spoken as a second
>language than English.  Might this not have something to do with which
>language *you* prefer to use?  Do you normally try to speak to people in
>English?
>
>>In Eastern Europe, it is definitly the lingua franca.  And I've
>>generally found it more understood that English in Holland, too.
Basically, I can confirm these observations; at least from travelling
to the Czech Republic and Hungary - Poland is probably a bit different
- apart from more touristic areas or regions with a German-speaking
minority.
 
>
>In those countries with Latin alphabets, this may be true.  They have
>always been more dominated by German-speaking nations.  It is not true in
>places where cyrillic dominates.  English is still the most popular
>second language in most areas.
I am not quite sure about Russia. I think the knowledge of German
(still) is more widespread there than the one of English.
One little story (that might not be representative). I recently
listened to a panel discussion during a conference where one
speaker apologized that he could not contribute to the discussion
himself (though his German was excellent). In fact, his speech
was given by a German in English.
 
Regards, 
Manfred Kiefer
 
