Got a Doubt ! Wanting for your Help ! Plz make it ASAP !

Robert Kern robert.kern at gmail.com
Wed Nov 27 07:57:52 EST 2013


On 2013-11-27 08:16, Antoon Pardon wrote:
> Op 26-11-13 22:42, Tim Delaney schreef:
>> On 27 November 2013 03:57, Antoon Pardon <antoon.pardon at rece.vub.ac.be
>> <mailto:antoon.pardon at rece.vub.ac.be>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>      So I can now ask my questions in dutch and expect others to try and
>>      understand me instead of me asking them in english? Or can I use
>>      literal translations of dutch idioms even if I suspect that such
>>      a literal translation could be misunderstood and even be insulting?
>>
>>
>> 1. No, because this is stated to be an English-speaking list/newsgroup.
>> It just doesn't specify what dialect of English.
>
> Well so much for this group being an international group with only one
> language allowed.
>
> However that second sentence doesn't make much sense to me. Modern
> languages contain a subset that is called the standard language.

Linguists would disagree.

> Yes I accept that everyone deviates from this standard language and that
> it isn't always easy to know what is and what is not within the standard
> language and that we should allow each other some leeway.

Incorrect. No dialect "deviates" from a "standard" form of that language. 
Everyone speaks a dialect. The privilege given to any particular dialect has 
nothing to do with the form of the dialect itself and everything to do with the 
sociopolitical history of its speakers. None of that is relevant to speaking 
comprehensibly in an international environment.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco




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