It would be pretty strange if the Romans called Frankish lingua franca,
that is some medieval invention.
On Fri, Apr 17, 2020 at 12:59 PM adriano paolo shaul gershom palma <
palmaadriano@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ja, genau
in part, in that area means in Europe, in the first place
one gets the faint idea that it remains an outlier probability that many
will speak magyar, and estonian.
aside from anything else, the BRD is the largest group in terms of
population, and nobody even dreams of occupying SW Afrika....
on the other hand it is a matter of my constants surprise how few
americans speak a language other than english
the percentage is low, in my family everyone was trilingual, more or less
by chance
I see no reason why americans ought not have school programs, and it will
be easy given the pool of teachers available, not many hwmong teachers in
paris....
plenty in los angeles
Quatsch wird gelöscht, ohne gelesen zu werden
Kerem jojjenek maskor es kulonosen masho
הִשְׁתַּדֵּל הִזְדַּקֵּן
palma, a paolo shaul םֹשׁ ְרֵגּ
On Fri, Apr 17, 2020 at 12:50 PM <epostboxx@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 17. Apr 2020, at 11:19, Adriano wrote:
in that area german has the best chancespeaking English for a long time.
the english decided to secede, hence there won't be MP in Strasbourg
Fr[en]ch has the marginal advantage of being the 1st language ofAfrica, and one of the official languages at the who fmi and un
Some observations:
I take it that "that area" implies 'lingua franca'; in which case
Adriano's comment is remarkably astute, given that 'lingua franca' is
derived from Italian, meaning literally ‘Frankish tongue’ (i.e., the
Germanic language of the ancient Franks).
According to Wikipedia:
"French has a long history as an international language of literature and
scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many
international organisations including the United Nations, the European
Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Trade
Organization, the International Olympic Committee, and the International
Committee of the Red Cross. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French
the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard
Mandarin Chinese."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language
Along with the agencies noted by the authors of the Wikipedia entry,
French is the official language of the Universal Postal Union. (English was
added as a working language in 1994).
http://www.upu.int/en/the-upu/languages.html
Here in Germany English functions as a 'lingua franca' of sorts; indeed
to the extent that not a few academics have bemoaned the decline of quality
in some areas of academic discussion due to its being carried out at a
'basic' (i.e., somewhat simplistic) ESL [English as a Second Language]
level.
My formal education was carried out in Canada, officially a bilingual
country: French and English. Unfortunately, in the schools which I
attended, the learning of French was never presented as an opportunity to
broaden one's literary, cultural and intellectual horizons, but rather as a
chore to be endured due to government policy. It is somewhat embarrassing
to report that within a space of three months (after taking a
one-hour-one-night-a-week course while still in Canada), my ability to
communicate in German surpassed the language skills in French which had
been instilled in me during 8 years of language instruction in the primary
and secondary schools of Manitoba and Ontario.
I continue to be impressed by the many Europeans (my experience is
primarily, with Dutch, Scandinavians, Belgians, Luxembourgers and of course
Germans) who take fluency in at least three languages to be a matter of
course. I particularly remember my astonishment at the language
proficiency of a pre-teenage casual acquaintance in Holland. As he had
noticed the German licence plates on our motorcycle, the boy began
conversation with us in German; once I pointed out the Canadian flag decals
on our saddle bags, he remarked without a pause, "Oh, cool!" and continued
to chatter happily away in astonishingly good English.
Chris Bruce,
wondering why, after writing the phrase
'my formal education was carried out in
Canada', a parenthetical 'and buried'
immediately popped into my head, in
Kiel, Germany
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