General / Off-Topic Why The British Flag? Covas Menu

[13A]

English is a black pudding that has consumed many languages and taken their attributes.

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse wh ore . We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
--James D. Nicoll

 

[znôrt]

International English IS British English...d'oh

oh, the british version of op! seems we've gone full cricle ...

A language is a dialect with an army and navy

Some top facts:-

1. AmE/BrE spelling differences occur because the language wasn't codified (e.g. agreed upon) before the split, therefore neither are "right" (further English spelling in general is highly idiosyncratic)
2. AmE has lots of anachronisms from 16/17th C BrE - e.g. Fall etc and other "Americanisms" are actually archaic BrE words
3. Arguing who has the "best" English, now that it is international is silly.
4. All languages change over time, always did change over time and always will change over time. English as a whole is a very healthy language because of this at the moment, but then so was latin.

+1 for common sense and basic knowledge.

plus fun facts for op:
- 'america' is a continent, not a country, for most non-native english speakers
- it's named after amerigo vespucci, an european (spanish nationalized italian no less), by a german cartographer in this map: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3200.ct000725
- the us doesn't have an official language at all

 

[Ethaidan]

At least americans have Basketball.

Yes... Invented by... a Canadian!

It's aright, they still have Baseball... I mean Hillbilly Cricket.

And American Football... Well, modified Rugby for people to soft for Rugby.

And Ice hockey... No, wait, that's a Canadian adaptation of Shinty.

 

[LeoBartlet]

After googling a bit, I have to present my evidence that the german flag has to be put next to all english speaking COVAS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English leading to

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

to directly quote: "english is a west germanic language", so please FD put all german flags to the english speaking COVAS.

Or in other words (as a german): all your speakbase are belong to us

I rest my case.

Last time you tried to get everyone to speak your language it never worked out so well for you or us

 

[Siobhan]

Nope, just this is more interesting than FSS

Quite, also my partner and I are making shopping lists for getting the noms and pop in for Christmas... (We're off to the supermarket soon and were combining lists with what we already have etc...) It's not complex, but neither of us can do so if our hands are full of HOTASs.

This thread has been rather humourous, and I presume for some, educational. There'll be plenty of time for salt¹ this afternoon.

¹ Checks list to see if we need to buy salt...

 

[Kellan Fell]

I think you'll find "hillbilly cricket" is actually a variation of an English game called Rounders.

 

[bootsam]

You should add that 'rounders' is generally played by young children.

 

[Ethaidan]

I think you'll find "hillbilly cricket" is actually a variation of an English game called Rounders.

Oh I know, I've been here for decades now and my children were born and are being raised in England. Hillbilly Cricket, however, more accurately describes the culture surrounding American Rounders.

 

[moorison]

Quite, also my partner and I are making shopping lists for getting the noms and pop in for Christmas... (We're off to the supermarket soon and were combining lists with what we already have etc...) It's not complex, but neither of us can do so if our hands are full of HOTASs.

This thread has been rather humourous, and I presume for some, educational. There'll be plenty of time for salt¹ this afternoon.

¹ Checks list to see if we need to buy salt...

I can honestly say I find this discussion rather fruitful, a lot of stuff to consider. Thank you all for that.

 

[Jukelo]

International English IS British English...d'oh

One thing I learned back in Uni and which experience has only confirmed numerous times since, is that international English is neither British nor American. It is its own thing, and non-natives will often have an easier time understanding each other than natives from either languages. Coming from different cultural backgrounds, and having to deal with wildly varying levels of proficiency, you skip all the meaningless noise and go straight to the point.

 

[Brett C]

Watch out we got a thargoid in here!

...or is it something else?

 

[Ethaidan]

One thing I learned back in Uni, is that international English is neither British nor American. It is its own thing, and non-natives will often have an easier time understanding each other than natives from either languages. Coming from different cultural backgrounds, and having to deal with wildly varying levels of proficiency, you skip all the meaningless noise and go straight to the point.

That often has a lot more to do with regional accents - 'international english' has nowhere near the variations you'll find across the UK. When I first moved here I was doing research in South Yorkshire. Sheffield was fine, but for the first six months, whatever they were speaking in Barnsley might as well have been Yiddish. Since then, research and travel has taken me all over the UK and the diversity of local dialects is fantastic!

 

[znôrt]

One thing I learned back in Uni, is that international English is neither British nor American. It is its own thing, and non-natives will often have an easier time understanding each other than natives from either languages.

which is why many don't call it english anymore, but globish.

Coming from different cultural backgrounds, and having to deal with wildly varying levels of proficiency, you skip all the meaningless noise and go straight to the point.

not really 'straight to the point'. language is never meangingless, but you can ignore and drop (or forget) meanings and add new depending on the context. this is exactly how language evolves, we will have eventually a single lingua franca but there will always be local contexts and variations. i feel that globish simply shares two very big common contexts it concentrates on: business and internet slang. both sound rather artificial if compared to local versions, but these contexts outreach all other.

 

[moorison]

which is why many don't call it english anymore, but globish.



not really 'straight to the point'. language is never meangingless, but you can ignore and drop (or forget) meanings and add new depending on the context. this is exactly how language evolves, we will have eventually a single lingua franca but there will always be local contexts and variations. i feel that globish simply shares two very big common contexts it concentrates on: business and internet slang. both sound rather artificial if compared to local versions, but these contexts outreach all other.

One point of distinction are local terms, that probably start as in-jokes that only a few understand and start to use them in a metaphorical way for other occasions. More and more people might adapt these if they like them and if these don't have the right rhythm or flow in the "proper" language, they remain local.

 

[Siobhan]

I think, in Britain at least, anyone can make themselves understood by anyone else, be they in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland (assuming we stick to English speakers for context), it's just that Brits are a bit ornery and we love to wind each other up with dialects and accents specifically designed to confuse and confound our conversational opponents - especially Yanks, but don't tell them that.

As to the rest of the world, we're slowly getting toward a terran standard, but I dunno what it'll be in the end, probably some hybrid of Chinese, Japanese and Spanish, with a few borrowed English words here and there for spice.

 

[Braandlin]

Have we had the discussion yet that the flag the Op complains about is not the British flag?

It is actually the Union Flag of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Although I note that some Americans struggle with the concepts of the UK being made up of several states...

[video=youtube;48NX6Uyy0BQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48NX6Uyy0BQ[/video]

I suggest we explain to him things like Gibraltar, the isle of Man, and the channel islands. Let alone dependant territories ...
And lets to the conversation in Welsh or Cornish...
Mind you he doesn't seem to understand Puerto Rico either?

 

[Braandlin]

I think, in Britain at least, anyone can make themselves understood by anyone else, be they in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland (assuming we stick to English speakers for context), it's just that Brits are a bit ornery and we love to wind each other up with dialects and accents specifically designed to confuse and confound our conversational opponents - especially Yanks, but don't tell them that.

Well said. Like any diverse group we bicker with each other but band together when threatened.

 

[Siobhan]

Have we had the discussion yet that the flag the Op complains about is not the British flag?

It is actually the Union Flag of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Although I note that some Americans struggle with the concepts of the UK being made up of several states...



I suggest we explain to him things like Gibraltar, the isle of Man, and the channel islands. Let alone dependant territories ...
And lets to the conversation in Welsh or Cornish...
Mind you he doesn't seem to understand Puerto Rico either?

Yeah, that's mostly covered, as has a reasoning for the lack of a Welsh COVAS. Wenglish on the other hand....

 

[Frank]

...or is it something else?

You're going to make Scots the next big baddie in the game? Well sign me up for that <grin>. As long as we get tartan paintjobs for our spaceships.

 

[Kellan Fell]

I don't think Trump understands humanity... He barely understands the USA, let alone what happens outside its borders. Balkans/Baltic, UK/England, it's all the same to him.