Are native speakers of English proud?

Sorry, I had no idea that the present tense 'sat' wasn't used in the US.
I assumed you were talking about the whole phrase.
'Sat' isn't colloquial, it's a standard verbal element. Much the same as 'Got' in place of the solely American 'Gotten'.
To British, Australian, Kiwi etc. ears the following phrase would sound quite odd: 'Where's Jade? She's not gotten up yet'.

"Gotten" sounds a little off to me. I've spent a fair amount of time around speakers of British English, but this "sat" thing is new for me.
It sounds like dialect to me.

Well I've lived in Britain all of my 24 yars and 'Sat' is used in the majority of situations.
It may be possible that because you've never heard that verb before that you've always subconsciously ignored it.
I remember when I learnt the word 'via' after seeing it written on a bus, I had never seent hat word before but afterwards I saw it everywhere.
It would be interesting if you start to notice it more now that you know of it. Let me know =)

English people should not be proud but be ashamed that English is the international language because the reason that their language rose up to the status that it is in today is not because the language is superior or anything over other languages but rather because their ancestors invaded innocent nations in African, Asian, and American continents and colonized them. SHAME ON YOU, YOU ENGLISH THIEVES!

>>Sorry, I had no idea that the present tense 'sat' wasn't used in the US.
I assumed you were talking about the whole phrase.
'Sat' isn't colloquial, it's a standard verbal element. Much the same as 'Got' in place of the solely American 'Gotten'.
To British, Australian, Kiwi etc. ears the following phrase would sound quite odd: 'Where's Jade? She's not gotten up yet'. <<

Gotten has crept into Australian English; it wouldn't be unusual to hear such a phrase.

Present tense 'sat'? It behaves more like an adjective. In any case, I would say "I'm seated on the fence" though I have heard 'sat' used that way on British television.

>>What DOES make many of us angry, those of us literally born into the English Language from the moment the maternity nurse snips our umbilical cords in the delivery room, and who subsequently came to love and adore our native tongue with passion, are our own kind, similarly born into it, but who have such little regard for it that they decimate it in the speaking of it. This has nothing whatsoever to do with their respective accents and regional dialects - more to do with a complete linguistic massacre in its delivery in a variety of ways.<<

Maybe that's what contributed to the creation of those accents and regional dialects.

>>What DOES make many of us angry, those of us literally born into the English Language from the moment the maternity nurse snips our umbilical cords in the delivery room, and who subsequently came to love and adore our native tongue with passion, are our own kind, similarly born into it, but who have such little regard for it that they decimate it in the speaking of it. This has nothing whatsoever to do with their respective accents and regional dialects - more to do with a complete linguistic massacre in its delivery in a variety of ways.<<


That's natural in any language. It's just more noticeable today with more varying and extreme levels of education amongst the densely packed populace.

>>What DOES make many of us angry, those of us literally born into the English Language from the moment the maternity nurse snips our umbilical cords in the delivery room, and who subsequently came to love and adore our native tongue with passion, are our own kind, similarly born into it, but who have such little regard for it that they decimate it in the speaking of it. This has nothing whatsoever to do with their respective accents and regional dialects - more to do with a complete linguistic massacre in its delivery in a variety of ways.<<

I think that most British people are extremely pleased that English is so widely spoken and understood. However most British people are also aware that although there may have been historical reasons for this state of affairs, the reality today is that America is more important than the UK.

The success of English is a little bit double edged. It is not uncommon to find immigrants are more literate in English than the native population that they live amongst. When you think about it, that is deeply worrying?

Also, it is well known that British people are very lazy when it comes to learning other languages.

Having a 'World Language' is rather like having your currency adopted by the World as its Currency of choice. Unfortunately I am not talking about Stirling or the Euro, but the Dollar. There are tremendous advantages, there are also some disadvantages.

"To British, Australian, Kiwi etc. ears the following phrase would sound quite odd: 'Where's Jade? She's not gotten up yet'."

It would sound equally weird to American ears, because we would never say such a thing. We are far more incline to say "She hasn't gotten up yet." There are some slight differences between Americans and Brits in the contractions we like to use and also in the verb tenses we prefer. Sometimes those British contraction patterns really stand out to us as odd, even though we are taking the same basic words -- She has not got(ten) up yet -- and choosing to contract has and not rather than she and has (both of which are equally valid), but there it is -- a minor dialectical difference.

I don't really have any strong feeling about speaking English because it's merely an accident of birth for me, but I suppose it would be closer to the gratitude scale of things -- it's pretty convenient. That said, I've been in situations in other countries where people did not speak English just because I needed them to, so don't get too excited about it being the "international language" -- still may not help you in BFE, Mexico or in downtown Tokyo. Or Paris, for that matter. On the other hand, it is true that I've run into strangers in strange lands who spoke it fluently and quite unexpectedly (I never expect it at all, and am always grateful when it happens). As an American with pretty recent immigrant ancestors from non-English-speaking countries on both sides of the family, I don't feel and special historical or heritage connection to the language; had circumstances been different, I could just as easily be speaking something else right now.

I myself have a similar view of my having English as a native language here, except that I tend to view it as spoken here as the *language of everyday life* here and not just as some lonely outpost of some international language. Honestly, I normally could not care less about *spoken* English as I know it supposedly being some kind of "international language", even though this is probably largely due to my rarely even getting outside of Wisconsin, much the less the continental US (even though I have been enough of a tourist in the past to claim that I at least left the above at least a few times). I am happy enough with people being able to read what I write here and I being able to read their responses; whether they could actually understand how I normally speak is of little consequence to me (except when I end up talking to service personnel from outside the US...)

Sorry -- "far more inclined"!

One gentleman who is now departing from the global scene claims to be a native speaker, but he has such a charming way with his words and forms of expression. He wil be sadly missed for that reason only in the opinions of most people.

We all use the English Language in our everyday lives, but not quite in the same colourful way as this guy. He has his own distinctive forms of expression

One of the UK's national Sunday newspapers today refers to them as "Burblings" and has listed some of them:

==================

*Will the highways of the internet become more few?

*It's a time of sorrow and sadness when we lose the loss of a life

*I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq

*I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office

*We're concerned about AIDS inside our White House - make no mistake about it

*I'm honoured to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein

*I've coined new words, like "misunderstanding"

*I recently met with the finance minister of the Palestinian Authority, was very impresed by his grasp pf finances

*It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm's way

*One year ago today, the time for excuse-making has come to an end

*I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't there

*You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test

*I don't particularly ike it when people put words into my mouth, either, by the way, unless I say it

*[The Taliban] have no disregard for human life

*When the governor calls I answer his phone

*Those who enter the country illegally violate the law

*Too many obstetricians and gynaecologists aren't able to practise their love with women all across the country (<a real gem, that one!)

*America stands for liberty, for the pursuit of happiness, and for the unalienalienable rights of life

*One has a stronger hand when there's more people playing your same cards

*One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures

*My job is a decision making job, and as a result, I make a lot of decisions

*I think we agree, the past is over

======================

Well, it is for him now! Aw bless! The English Language of the White House won't quite be the same any more, will it?

The newspaper I mentioned says that the comedians of America will now be hard pressed looking for new material. The successor to the White House position does at least appear to have a less hilarious grasp of the English Language........what a shame! ;-)

English may well be globally dominant in the world of business, finance, commerce, international politics and affairs generally, aviation and many aspects of entertainment, but it wil never quite equal some other Languages in many sections of the arts, such as opera.

You may well go to your local opera house and listen to the entire performance being delivered in English instead of having the translations similtaneously appearing in the screen up there in the heavens above the stage. That's all well and good, but I'd rather have the latter.

Right, take Mozart's "Don Giovanni" - and just by way of an example the famous "La ci darem la mano" ("Give me your hand") from that very opera.


Here is that extract sung in English at Covent Garden, in London, with Peter Halverson as Don Giovanni:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0UBDOtkrKok

Now, in Italian, recorded at the Glyndebourne Opera House, situated right in the middle of the countryside just outside Lewes, in East Sussex, England, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra, with a Welshman singing in the role of Don Giovanni.....Bryn Terfel. It takes a Welshman to put every stress and syllable of the Italian Language into good effect!

I know which version I prefer, and it isn't the English Language version.

At Glyndebourne: Cecilia Bartoli and Bryn Terfel in "La ci darem la mano" from Mozart's Don Giovanni:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4I-VtGKgvr4&feature=related

Bryn Terfel originally comes from a small village just south of Caernarfon, in North West Wales (the site of the Roman fortress known as Segontium and also the massive castle built by England's King Edward I in 1280.

His first Language was Welsh, in which he is fluent, naturally, and is the main means of communication whenever he goes to Wales to visit his family.

His name Bryn - easy to pronounce, but make sure you roll the R as the Welsh do (and as we do in Scotand). Terfel is a wee bit more tricky - again, really roll the R- and pronounce the F as a V - "vee" (as it always is in the Welsh Language ( unless it is a double FF in which case it is sounded just like an English "F (eff). Also, really say the name (and words generally) stroingly and emphaticaly, as the Welsh do, and most certainly the Italians as well. There is little in the way of gliding over letters and diphthongisation as there is in English English.

I'm a native English speaker and am not ashamed or proud to be one, however I am grateful that my native language is so widespread, merely for convenience sake. I don't worry about theories of the deterioration of the language by non-native speakers with only a partial understanding, there are enough native speakers to circumvent it, short term anyway.

As for the politcally correct notion that I should be ashamed because my native tongue has been spoken by imperialists who subjugated the planet I say: cry me a river. What square inch of habitable real estate on planet earth has not been overtaken by somebody at some time? Is Spanish the scourge of the planet? How about Portugese? The Chinese are doing all they can to superimpose their language on Tibetans. See what I mean?

<I think it doesn't make sense to be proud *or* ashamed of something over which you have no control - like your nation of birth, or your native language.>
Absolutely. Pride smacks of conceit.

Damian, thanks for the "Burblings", that’s grand.