Bilingual in Europe versus USA

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 07:08:12 -0600, "spamfree"
wrote:

In Canada, if a job posting calls for applicants to be bilingual,
it means French and English.

You mean Quebecoise and English.

You mean Québecois and American.

A better description would be Québecois and North American,
as Canadians and Americans speak almost the exact same language.
And if we are going that far, then we need to acknowledge that
Australians speak yet another dialect, so there are at least three
major dialects of English: UK, NA, Aussie/NZ.

Rubbish, it's the same language with some minor differences in vocab
and accent. Fundamentally it differs little between those countries.
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

Erick T. Barkhuis wrote:

spamfree:

so there are at least three
major dialects of English: UK, NA, Aussie/NZ.


a) Which type of UK english? What about cockney?
b) Wouldn't you like to include South African english?

.... Indian subcontinent English, isn't it? Caribbean English, mon?
--
dgs

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 22:02:41 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

James Silverton writes:

Probably because "gotten" is past tense.

As it is in "I've got to do that."

That doesn't look like past tense to me.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 21:31:30 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Hatunen writes:

Anybody can say they studied linguistics.

Anybody can say that someone else didn't.

Yes. But I didn't.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 21:37:38 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

a.spencer3 writes:

Surely, the tonal elements of Chinese add an additional complexity on top of
normal language learning?

There is nothing abnormal about the tones in Chinese. They are
different from the phonemic features of European languages, but they
are not abnormal, or any more difficult, nor do they represent any
"additional complexity" on top of anything.

Chinese is a fairly simple language, as most old languages tend to be.

Old languages are generally much more complex that modern
languages. Certainly, Old English is more complex than Modern
English.

Chinese is simple in that it doesn't rely on case endings and
declensions and such.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

Hatunen wrote:

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 06:41:02 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:
Both problems are exaggerated. Anyone fluent in English can
understand both American and British speakers.


You mean "Anyone fluent in standard English can understand
standard American and standard British". I daresay that a West
Virgianian would have a very hard time understanding Glaswegian.


My Scottish Granny (from Easter Ross) found the English spoken by people
from the Mississippi Delta, completely unintelligible.

James Silverton wrote:


Just to pour a little gas on the fire! What is "Standard English": the
language of the majority of speakers or that of a self appointed elite
who happen to live in the place where the language started? :-) :-)

Neither. It's the version of the language your English teacher taught
you -- assuming you're older than 40-45.

The SAT II (Writing) test -- the former grammar test of the College
Board in the US -- used to be based on what you and I would recognize as
the rules and conventions of Standard English. The new version of the
SAT -- instituted March 2005 -- includes a grammar section that accepts
such non-Standard conventions as beginning a sentence with the word
"Because." Inexplicably, the test also treats "data" as a plural -- the
scientific usage -- rather than as a collective noun -- the Standard
English usage.

Karen Selwyn

spamfree wrote:


No, absolutely not. I will probably forget some but here are the major
language variations in the USA: West Coast, Southern, Northeastern,
Northern, and Midwestern.

There is a New Orlean accent that sounds identical to a Brooklyn accent!
Blew me away the first time I heard it in the documentary AMERICAN
TONGUES. Incidentally, this documentary is pure pleasure as it explores
the stereotypes about regional accents and class accents. You haven't
lived until you've heard Texans trying to pronounce that well-know New
York-Yiddishism "shlep."

Apparently, my enthusiasm is shared. Here's a quote from Allen Metcalf,
Secretary of the American Dialect Society: "The best visual presentation
I have ever seen about American English."

Karen Selwyn

Hatunen wrote:

What is a "neutral" accent?

One in which all traces of the place origin of the speaker have
disappeared.

The voice of the person who recorded the electronic bits of sound for
the phone directory is an example of a neutral voice. In another post, I
mentioned AMERICAN TONGUES. There's a segment in this documentary about
the woman whose voice is used in 411 information phone calls. She was
selected because her voice showed no evidence of regional pronunciation.

Karen Selwyn

Indian subcontinent English, isn't it?

I find that accent as difficult to understand as the Southern USA.

Caribbean English, mon?

If we accept that as an proper version of English, we might as well
accept that Jive / Black English is a proper language.

"Oh stewardess, I speak Jive." Woman in Airplane.