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Is English an inferior language?
***The last two political , economic and military superpower were not the British Empire and USA but USSR and USA***
Who has suggested otherwise? No Briton has, that's for sure. It must be a figment of your imagination in your quest to denigrate the Britons' homeland, which is something you are perfectly at liberty to do.
Why not come over and take your lectern to Speakers' Corner in that bit of Hyde Park close to Marble Arch, here in London Town? It's a lovely sunny day, and Speakers' Corner is now in full swing, it being a Sunday.
People like you are there right now, doing exactly the same thing - ranting and raving from their soapboxes, spouting anti British hatred and venom, insulting this country left right and centre for all their worth, but the beauty about all this is that they are allowed to do it without any official interference at all, they have carte blanche to slag off the lot of us and the country we live in all without let or hindrance....just watch all those bored looking coppers strolling back and forth (that's policemen in Britspeak....totally unarmed...not a single shotgun between the lot of them (this is Britain remember). The coppers don't give a rat's arse about what you say about Britain, our Government, our foreign policies or the price of frozen peas in Sainsbury's - they are only there to make sure all your bloody foreigners don't start knocking the living daylights out of each other.
Feel free to say just what you like and how you like and you can be sure no hordes of bull-necked, shaven headed thugs from some kind of Gestapo like Security Service will descend on you and cart you off to some dark, damp dungeon ...as I say this is Britain, and we don't operate in that way - and haven't done for a couple of centuries or so now. Free Speech is fun, but there are times when I feel that there are times when too many people (both homegrown and from abroad) take too much of an advantage of it really, but democracy always has some kind of price tag attached to it, doesn't it, pal? But it's worth the payment all in all.
As it happens the Marcble Arch I mentioned...it was built on the site of what was known as Tyburn Tree....which was actually a gallows where up until the early 19th century people who fell foul of society as it existed then, or even "spoke out of turn", so to speak, were publicly hanged. As with all those knitting women sitting excitedly before the French guillotines waiting for the show to begin, the same was true at Tyburn Tree. We don't do any of that anymore, which is why you can shout your mouth off to your heart's content at Speaker's Corner - as long as you behave yourself nobody will clap you in irons, mate....this is Britannia, as I say.
Thankfully, very thankfully, the days of any kind of British "superpower status", are now long, long gone.....if it ever really existed in quite those terms in the first place. As far as this Forum is concerned the "British Empire", as you called it, can at least be credited with the most significant donation made to the Global Empire .... the Language to which this section of Antimoon is devoted.
***The importance of English nowadays is due to USA only, not to the heritage of the British Empire even a bit***
Not even a teeny weeny bit? Aaawww... what a shame.....anyway, just for fun this appeared in a magazine included with one of the UK's national newspapers 13/09/09.......in an advice column hosted by a female agony aunt .....problem first, reply second (always tongue in cheek):
Communication Breakdown
Problem:
Three years ago, I met a boy on a train. He was very good-looking and we fell for each other instantly. He only spoke a little English as he had just moved to the UK. We had a fun, brief relationship, then it had to end because of the distance an cultural differences. We also couldn't go anywhere without a dictionary. He has recently got back in touch with me and can now speak perfect English. Should I meet him? I quite liked it when we couldn't communicate properly.
Agony Aunt reply:
You don't say what nationality this man is, and this is rather crucual. If he is American, then he may now be able to make himself understood in English, but the cultural differences will probably still be too vast. You might as well meet up with him, however; for all that men and women speak the same language, their ability to communicate to one another in it remains halting.
***Paradoxically English became a lingua IN SPITE OF the English, because they were so coward that if it wasn't for USA and given the poor performance of the British Empire in the IIWW, nowadays German would be the global lingua franca***
Before I start my justified indignant rant (which I know I should not really do in a Forum dedicated to Languages but there you go - I just can't let the above totally inaccurate comments to go unchallenged) I'd like to advise the poster of the above nonsense to work on his/her own English Language skills......."because they were so coward"? Are you saying it was really the Coward Lion in "The Wizard of Oz"?
Whatever.....but listen up here, pal...don't you EVER, EVER, EVER accuse the British of being cowardLY at anytime during WW2 or during any other conflict since then (and not just referring to the English as you so foolishly stated, you idiotic dolt!).
Are you choosing to ignore the true facts of history or are you merely totally ignorant of them altogether?
Right...you mentioned WW2....a conflict in which all right thinking, decent people were up against one of the most evil of forces ever to have afflicted and sullied the human race at any time in history, one which cause the worst possible kind of suffering to much of the European peoples even before the war had actually begun, and certainly in the years that followed its outbreak...horror on an unbelievable scale. Subsequently this human suffering spread to many other millions of people worldwide.
Britain took on the Nazis following the rape of Poland, a country which suffered particularly badly at that time...what happened there was tragic beyond measure - Britain, and subsequently France and the British Commonwealth countries, had no option but to take on the Nazis as a result of their vile actions, which really were potentially a threat to the entire world as it turned out.....Hitler wanted his own Empire, one that would last for over a 1,000 years....one made up of his own chosen Master Race, with the elimination of all those who didn't fit the bill. The Brits didn't care for that very much at all...it was not nice.
So Hitler took it upon himself to rampage through much of Continental Europe....country after country collapsed under the boots of his Stormtroopers....leaving only one potential prize unclaimed......one that really would have been a jewel in his crown, and no mistake.
How fortunate for us Brits that we are an island race.....the English Channel proved to be the moat Shakespeare (via John of Gaunt) referred to in "Richard II" - our line of defence which to us today in the 21st century seems totally inconceivable, but the the Europe of 1940 was a museum piece compared with what we know today. Der Kanal stopped Adolf in his tracks....the Big Prize was so tantalisingly close (I mean, the evil bastard with the funny moustache could even see unoccupied England in the distance from the coast of captured France....so near and yet so far) yet it was a vital barrier to his grand scheme.
So he set his mighty Luftwaffe across those incredibly irritating 22 miles of English Channel in a quest to knock the RAF out of the skies......after all, his Luftwaffe outnumbered the RAF four to one so it should have been a walkover for his guys. Itdid not take him long to find out otherwise...the sod had taken on more than he could chew....he was up against the British, who by this stage really were alone and isolated in the face of the nasty Nazi threat...much of Europe was now firmly under the jackboot.
Going back a year in time, the American ambassador to Great Britain was a geezer called Joseph Kennedy, who had lived in London for a few years prior to 03/09/39, along with his family which included a lad who later became an ill-fated President of the United States). You'd think that during his time living in Britain this bloke Kennedy would have got to know the British people quite well, and what made us tick.....but apparently he didn't really....he hadn't a bloody clue, as it turned out. You must remember that he was of Irish descent, had sympathised with the Irish insurgents in their struggle with the British in the 1920s, much like the many such Irish Americans in later years who had actively supported the IRA even to the extent of financial support and the supply of arms with the aim of killing the British not only in Ireland but also here in the UK in the many fatal terrorist attacks on British soil in the 1960s/1970s, support which was constantly being "denied" and unchallenged by the American Governments of the day.
Anyway, once it became clear that Britain really was all on its own facing the threat of invasion by the Nazis in 1940, plus the increasing aerial attacks on this country by the might of the Luftwaffe, old man Kennedy kept reporting back to Washington to say that "Britain was finished.....it's all a matter of time....the Nazis are going to knock the hell out of the British...it's time to pack up and head back home States-side and safety.
So the Battle of Britain commenced...our isolated and very much threatened island nation depending on the extreme bravery and skill of little more than 1,500 or so RAF pilots* in their spitfires and hurricanes...Churchill's famous Few, on whom the Many (that's us, folks) later owed an immense debt of gratitude in this Field of Human Conflict, because the Luftwaffe, for all it's numerical advantage over the RAF was no match for our guys, who displayed bravery and resilience and skill beyond measure.
All the while this was going on the United States of America, as in WW1 during all the crucial battles of that conflict, watched from their safe, neutral haven thousands of miles away to the west, far across the sea, while the RAF* battled against all odds to defend the people of this country. It was the same during the Blitz, which started when the Nazis made their greatest mistake of all when they stopped bombing the airfields and attempting to blast the RAF planes and pilots out of the skies above the English countryside and started instead to blast the hell out of London and many other towns and cities in Britain....yet they still failed to win through.
Ed Murrow was an American reporter broadcasting direct to America from London during the worst of the air raids during the Blitz...in all his broadcasts he never failed to comment on the (in his own words) "incredible bravery and heroism and complete resolution of the British people during these terrible times, all displaying an amazing spirit of defiance which is really difficult to convey in all my messages to you - you really have to be here to see it for yourself to believe it to be true!" Ed Murrow's very words in late 1940 as London was being pounded night after night after night". As I say, it wasn't only London - it was the fate of many other towns and cities as well, but London was where he was based.
America still remained neutral throughhout all of this in far away Britain and Europe (and you can't really blame them for that....it was a "European war" after all, wasn't it?) Heaven only knows what would have happened if Pearl Harnor hadn't taken place....it was like WW1 repeating itself.
Better late than never, I reckon....it bit like deja vu.
Anyway, following Pearl Harbor......Britain really WAS invaded in a big way......by the Americans.....there was no corner of these islands these guys didn't get to while they were here......."over paid, over sexed and over here". It seems that many a British male, in particular, felt that an invasion by the Germans would have been a preferred option! Many a British female felt otherwise.
Anyway, the Americans didn't finish the job off on their own in occupied Europe either...they could NOT have done it without us, the British.
Please don't forget the SAS.....British guys who are probably the bravest of fighting men ever to walk the face of the earth.....among other British fighting men. Regrettably there will always be a need for fighting men, humanity being what it is...was is ever any different?
Along with bravery the Brits are really good at diplomacy, as has been demonstrated in Iraq and Afghanistan....something appreciated by the people of those countries not actually involved in the whole conflict with the evil forces being faced in those countries. Gung-ho gun happy tactics are not quite the British way of action.
*Along with the British who formed the majority, the RAF during the Battle of Britain was eternally grateful for all the assistance given by other nationalities joining in the battle in the skies of England in 1940 - all facing the common enemy - not only British Commonwealth nationals, but also other Euroipean nationals whose countries had been over-run by the jackboot, including a large number of Poles and Czechs.....without them the final outcome would have been quite different, no mistake.
Four American pilots actually took part in the Battle of Britain as well, in support of the RAF - all four had strong British connections, and sadly, all four were killed in action over the English countryside in that fateful summer. That was the sole American contribution to the survival of Britain on that crucial occasion, but the impoirtabnt thing was this - Joesph Kennedy seriously misjudged the British....by a very long way indeed....
Hahahaha, Damian, how gullible are you? How long did it take you to write that? Don't you realise that it was just a troll and he won big time!
<<Hahahaha, Damian, how gullible are you? How long did it take you to write that? Don't you realise that it was just a troll and he won big time! >>
I agree with you.
Damian's history comes from old films (the women knitting at the guillotine, WWII) and new propaganda (the events in Iraq and Afghanistan). It is charming but uncritical.
Well, not quite, Damian. Prior to our entry into WWII, the US was pretty much violating every law of neutrality on the books to give aid to the side we would eventually openly align ourselves with.
http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Neutrality-The-twentieth-century.html
"The "new neutrality" policy failed for many reasons. In actuality, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt the United States was not about to stand idly by and let the world be dominated by the aggressors who had signed the Tripartite Pact. Presidential acts as well as congressional measures eroded the new policy. President Roosevelt refused to recognize that a state of war existed between Japan and China, or between Russia and Finland. In the destroyers-for-bases deal of 1940, he sold or traded World War I–vintage warships to Great Britain, and extended the Monroe Doctrine to include the mid-Atlantic. In 1939 Congress repealed the arms embargo provisions of the Neutrality Act of 1937, cut trade with Japan, and passed the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, which in effect made the United States an unofficial ally of the nations opposing the Axis. By the end of October 1941, a virtual state of war existed between Germany and the United States, with President Roosevelt convinced that formal war would break out over some incident in the Atlantic between the two countries. However, as Japan was bent upon establishing its "greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere," Roosevelt—in an effort to pressure the Japanese to relinquish their conquests in China and Southeast Asia—ultimately cut off all exports to Japan. Convinced that the United States meant to strangle Japan, its government in 1941 undertook plans to attack and, if possible, destroy the American Pacific fleet. When the attack on Pearl Harbor came on 7 December 1941, followed in quick succession with an American declaration of war on the Japanese Empire and German and Italian declarations of war on the United States, history witnessed the end of the United States as a neutral nation, at least in a traditional sense.
In addition to lend-lease and other neutral-only-by-the-skin-of-our-teeth acts, American ships at sea would radio British pilots to disclose the coordinates of any German subs they spotted, and sometimes even tail them to give continuous updates on their positions.
Beyond that, thousands of Americans snuck across the Canadian border to fight in the war on behalf of the Canadian military prior to the official US declaration of war. They were so valuable that the Canadian government even modified its own rules to make it easier for them to do so without dire repercussions at home -- and the US government did its best to look the other way:
"One problem was that upon joining the RCAF, recruits had to pledge allegiance to the British monarch, something that could result in forfeiture of citizenship for the young Americans. This obstacle was removed when the Canadian government passed an Order in Council replacing the oath with a temporary agreement to obey RCAF rules and discipline for the duration of the war.
During November 1940, a note from the American State Department was released stating that the Clayton Knight Committee was openly spending Canadian government funds to lure Americans to Canada to serve in the RCAF and that this was in violation of American law.
In response, the Canadian government created the "Dominion Aeronautical Association" as a buffer between the Clayton Knight Committee and the RCAF. Correspondence by the Committee with potential recruits was directed to the Association. When recruits arrived at their office in Ottawa they were told, "We really haven't anything for you right now but maybe the RCAF does. Their office is right next door."
With the enactment of lend-lease legislation in March 1941, the American government made it easier for its citizens to join the RCAF by treating the enlistment of its citizens in Canadian forces as part of its aid policy and exempting such recruits from its own military draft.
After Pearl Harbour was attacked, everything changed. Young Americans wanted to join their own air force which was welcoming recruits, not Canada's. The Clayton Knight Committee's work was done, having been responsible for sending 900 trained aircrew and 1450 trainees to the RCAF, as well as 300 pilots to the RAF.
Other young Americans had made their way to Canada on their own and by the time the United States declared war against the Nazis in December 1941, approximately 9000 American citizens had joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, having made their own personal decision to enter the war."
http://www.lancastermuseum.ca/americansrcaf.html
"I happen to speak German and I don't find it hard at all"
I'd like to know how you happened to speak German. For me, there was no serendipity involved at all.
Where would you ignorant peasants be without me?"-Edward Teach
I think we would be living peacefully in our villages without fear of coastal raiders.
Some of the kids would miss seeing you light up your beard though, and I suppose some folks would miss the sea chanteys. There are four ways to spell the plural of that word, btw. I shouldn't know that (oops), I'm just an ignorant peasant too.
Found you at last K.T.
Quick lads, time for a sea shanty!
The decoys in our shanties will enjoy your chanties, but you won't hear any applause.
Why are people surprised that people learn English even though they hate it? Haven't you ever heard the old refrain "know thy enemy"?
Yes, we have heard it.
But I am far more concerned about the mental stability of someone who considers a language to be their "enemy"
O happy day!! Greetings, Aidan Mclaren!!
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