urge to kill rising... (a proof read rant)

[Melonade]

/me smiles

Thank you...I was expecting smackdown for speaking in leet in my intro post...I'll make sure to act more 'appropriately' from now on...and now I'll leave this alone and let the thread continue on...I'm waiting for the newbie smackdown still o_O *eep*

[MsFish]

(Who am I forgetting?)

Stacer.  Don't forget Stacer.  

[fuzzyoctopus]

Hmm, I remembered her but forgot to type her.

[Master Xaio]

The other problem with that idea is that Latin DOES still dominate. there are more European languages that have Latin as their foundation than any other tradition. We still use latin modifiers and terms. And the single largest Christian organization still uses Latin as an official language. It's often used in science. THis 1500 years after the nation who made the language ceased to exist. Sorry, that's pretty darn influential. For hundreds of years it WAS what you spoke. I never said American English would be permanently enshrined, but I think it will come to dominate over other forms of the language.

Ok then... french, spanish, italian.  English, whilst it does draw a considerable amount from latin, it is essentially a german language.  

The fact that christianity still uses latin as their official language proves nothing - just that they've been around for a while.  Tell me, what are the jewish, or arabic holy books written in? The moslem holy books? Last I heard, certainly the moslem holy books were written before christianity was even concieved of, and Im pretty sure that they were written in a language which is still being used today.  By the largest religion in the world.  It may have been modified (I'm not sure) but so has latin - a lot of the pronunciations etc. today are suss, its how they *think* it happened.  

You've also ignored all the other examples I pointed out.  Heck, if nothing else, ignore all of them and just look at two examples: the asians, and the moslems.  

Could I *also* point out that whilst the Americans 'have political supremacy' that if you look at history, most likely it won't last long?

What's really funny about it is that I hear many many more australians speak on par with this intellectual level than Americans.

Oh, please, I'm curious? Incidentally, I never said that Australians were any different from the Americans in terms of differing in accents etc. from English, in fact I didn't mention Australia at all.  So taking cheap shots doesn't accomplish a heap, sorry.

Brownie points to mercury_yume incidentally.

And Gopher - next weekend I'll *show* you an armoury

[JP Dogberry]

Actually, Islam comes a fair bit after Christianity, to the point where Jesus is considered to Mohammad a little as John the Baptist is considered to Jesus by Christians.

[Master Xaio]

Really? Hm, ok, my mistake, I apologise.  

A couple of things I forgot to mention:
Latin influenced a fair few modern languages
Greek influenced and was the basis for latin, and is still spoken.

Theoretically, Greek is just as influential as latin.  

And face it, latin isn't spoken that often - and when it is, in professions like botany, and medicine, etc. most ppl don't understand what they're saying.  The exceptions are some lawyers, and historians.  Western lawyers and historians.  Plus priests sing/use verses from the bible etc. which are selected - they still can't speak latin.  I can learn some arabic phrases in an hour, and speak them perfectly - doesn't mean I can speak latin.  

Oh, and the 50 years thing?  It was a random number picked out of the air.  Nonetheless, what you said was still interesting Jelly.

[Godzemo]

That, and Judaism came a good two millenia before Christianity. And hey, we still speak the same language we started with, Hebrew. (Alright, fine, we started with Aramaic, but Hebrew's been around for just under four millenia anyway xD)

Ehlers, get your head out from under a bush; with estimates going as high as 6 billion people living in China alone, the sum total of the world's English speakers may well be far capped by Chinese speakers already ^_^

[Master Xaio]

Or American for that matter Good to see ya dude.

[Entsuropi]

Ehlers, get your head out from under a bush; with estimates going as high as 6 billion people living in China alone, the sum total of the world's English speakers may well be far capped by Chinese speakers already ^_^

Care to give examples or sources for this magical 6x multipler of the chinese population?

Islam is not the largest religion in the world either, afaik. It's the fastest growing but I suspect either Buddhism or Hinduism are the highest, with their hundreds of millions in India alone, never mind the rest of Asia.



Mainly I'm curious as to why all of you little aussies are taking this so seriously. I know it's hip and cool to hate america but Outcast certainly is being more rude than needed.

[Master Xaio]

My apologies... I wasn't meaning to be rude, this is just something I feel rather strongly.  Godzemo - well, he's just rude always

THis isn't meant to be america bashing, just the idea that the american language is miracously going to gain ascendancy over the world when even its parent language, english, doesn't hold that plus history shows that no language gains ascendancy really.

[Entsuropi]

English has ascendancy already. It is the trade language in China (they have multiple languages, and the two most spoken are Mandarin and English - anyone that doesn't speak [and is, one assumes, rich] mandarin goes for English). In India it is the language of government, a direct result of the Empire - when we moved out the Indians carried on, not changing anything, simply moving a few managers up a few steps to fill the vacant posts. English is also used because there is 30 languages in India so it's easier for everyone to learn English rather than learn 29 other languages.

And that is why I think the idea of 'American english ruling the world' is rather foolish. There is not much more world left, and we Brits made our mark rather heavily. China will be the next superpower, so by Saints logic we will all be speaking Mandarin in a hundred years.

[Godzemo]

Heh, I actually wouldn't complain about that; Mandarin's quite a nice language on the ears, and fast, even if I can't understand a word of it xD

Also, if you go for the conventional 1-1.5 billion count for China, then Christianity and Islam are, I believe, the world's largest religions. While Buddhism is mostly confined to China and its emmigrants, Islam and Christianity are the primary religions of several dozen countries each, and many of those are quite populous.

[Entsuropi]

While Buddhism is mostly confined to China and its emmigrants

Try talking to JP about that sometime - he will tell you just how tragically wrong you are.

[JP Dogberry]

Like how China is a communist country that denounces the idea of religion?

Plus, how most Buddhism in Asia, a coninent that is largely buddhist, didn't grow from china? At all?

[Entsuropi]

If one were pedantic one would note that Buddhism originated in India, and only later transferred to China. And that the whole Islamic area includes perhaps 1 billion at very most.

Also China does not suppress most religions, only religious organisations they feel are dodgy. A little list here. My dad was there last week, he said he saw some religion being practiced openly in public parks.