English is a dominant language because first England and then the US have been dominant players in the world. If Lithuania or Ireland had developed into a great power and colonized large parts of the world, Lithuanian or Irish would be the major world language.
In most countries, the election system ensures the party with the largest number of votes to get the largest number of places in parliament. Not so in England. No, we don't get the same government all the time. We have had more changes in government than the UK during the last years. Yes, the Swedish People's Party could probably do more. Saying that they have done nothing makes me wonder how closely you follow Finnish news.
Yes, the government in Sweden and Finland are controlling alcohol sales to a much larger extent than I would want. As for Finland being socialist, it has never yet had an exclusively socialist government. I think Ireland and Finland are the only two European countries that has never had purely left governments. The UK has had a left party in goverment for the last 8 years now. The level of corruption in the Nordic countries is below the level in every country in the Anglosphere. The Americans may or may not be ahead of the English in learning foreign languages.
Both of them could do with some improvement; as could any other country, especially Sweden in Finland - both have seen drops in every language except English during the last years.
Two reasons Americans may not be so anxious to learn other languages. First, our country is so large in size. We can cross miles and never find need to use another language, We can go north to Canada and never need to change language. This is unlike Europe, where if you like to travel, you are constantly crossing into areas where your native tongue is foreign to the inhabitants.
Second, with very few exceptions, our ancestors arrived here with no English. They had to struggle to get along in a country whose language and customs were not theirs.
They worked very hard to assimilate and were very proud when at last they mastered the language. To foreign-born Americans, English IS a second language. As for djweeb, his Colonel Blimp posturings have to be a put-on of some sort. Jonas, I could witter on about jury trials and freedom, but it continues a point that is very off-topic. But English spelling is fairly regular, but deviates from regularity to reveal its linguistic history.
None of which backs up your claim that "English is the greatest language" I'm quite fond of english, but to state any language is "the greatest" is For purely objective reasons, I consider German to be a far better language to write software specifications in than english - and I have years of experience with both.
And the imprecision of english is one reason that latin continued for years to be used for law and still is by the Roman Catholic Church. English regular?
And this is me saying this folks!!! English is no better or worse than Gaeilge or swahili Yes some languages have status, big numbers, power, history, literature etc etc etc.. But it makes no sense to say a language is better than another! Depends of course on how you define knowing a language :- I usually say ten. It does not in any way mean that I'm fluent in ten languages, but ten is the number of languages in which I can carry out a basic conversation or read newspapers.
Jonas, what are the 10? What are the other 6? None of these six is fluent, but I can read books in all of them and carry out normal conversations. Neither have I done it with Norwegian, Danish or Estonian although I understand more of those languages than of any of the six mentioned above. I just got Teach Yourself Welsh.
Very nice book, orthography is amazingly easy. I love it. Terms, Conditions and Privacy. Posted on Sunday, October 16, - pm:. Posted on Monday, October 17, - am:. Posted on Monday, October 17, - pm:. Posted on Tuesday, October 18, - am:.
Robert Unregistered guest Posted From:. Posted on Tuesday, October 18, - pm:. Lucy Unregistered guest Posted From:. Posted on Wednesday, October 19, - am:. Warnecke identifies a growing momentum, bolstered by the official recognition of the Scots language by the Scottish government and awareness of Scots as a language in its own right.
Last year also featured the first Scots language awards , held in Glasgow in September, where the winner of the lifetime achievement award was the writer Sheena Blackhall, who was recently also named as the first Doric makar, or poet laureate. The range of written Scots has been transformed, says Dempsey, since the 70s and 80s, when writers would employ the language to portray a particular type of character.
Another challenge for Welsh learners are the many differences between formal written Welsh, and informal spoken and written Welsh. Dialect differences in Irish and Scottish Gaelic can also present learners with challanges. These differences are mainly in pronunciation, and to a lesser extent in vocabulary and grammar.
There are quite a few different versions of revived Cornish, which differ mainly in spelling and pronunciation. I learnt one version of Cornish, for example, then found other courses in other versions, which was a bit confusing.
Dr P: Was the bilingual nature of society where the languages spoken a help or frustration to you as a learner? SA: As almost everybody who speaks a Celtic language also speaks English, or French in the case of Breton speakers, it can be difficult for learners to convince native speakers to stick the Celtic languages, rather than switching to English or French. I have found this sometimes when speaking Welsh to people in shops, and having them reply in English. Maybe they thought they were helping me.
Now that I speak Welsh more fluently, this rarely happens. Dr P: While Irish has the most number of speakers on paper and Welsh is the strongest as a living language, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Breton are under an ever-present threat from language shift to English or French.
Do you see any cause for optimism? SA: There are some causes for optimism. The numbers of Manx and Cornish speakers are increasing, and they tend to be enthusiastic about the languages as they have chosen to learn them, rather than being obliged to do so.
Their office was next to the UN office in Maseru. A small world indeed! See all details about our online and residential courses here. Cookies We use cookies to allow us to better understand how the site is used. By continuing to use this site, you consent to this policy.
Click to learn more Okay, thanks.
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