Talk:English language/Archive 10

message: No mention of the many inconsistencies and irregularities of English pronunciation. It seems English is notorious for breaking it's own pronunciation rules with so many irregularities. I don't know if I'm wording it well enough, but i'm sure someone knows what I mean. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.210.245.151 (talk • contribs).
:I think what you mean is the low level of consistency between spelling and pronunciation, i.e. how hard it is to deduce pronunciation from spelling. That could probably be mentioned briefly here, but any detail should probably go to English orthography instead. —Angr 05:56, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Criticism of pronunciations?

message: http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.wherepc.asia.mongolia
:That's interesting, but the scare quotes make me wonder how "official" it really is. This article makes it sound more like the Mongolian government is pushing toward having everyone learn English, and that at least one 20-year-old student would like English to be the second official language, but I'm having trouble finding evidence that the Mongolian government actually passed a law making English the second official language. —Angr 07:16, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Mongolia declared English the"Second Official Language of Mongolia. ...

message: The total speakers figure (box on left) only takes into account first/second language. What about third/fourth/fifth/.... Also a total figure should be included.--Bah23 10:33, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: "Second language" is a technical term referring to any language one learns later than the language(s) one acquired natively. Saying that someone speaks English as a second language does not imply that they don't also have other second languages, some of which may have been learned before English. —Angr 16:44, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Total speakers 

message: It is stated that USA and Britain (UK) do not have English as an official language. The is not true as far as USA is concerned: English and German were equally used in the early USA and the government held the 'great referendum' to decide on one or the other as the official language. Of course, English won but only marginally. 81.79.215.74 14:05, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorry, but that story, in all its incarnations, is but an urban legend with only a small kernel of truth. See Frederick Muhlenberg#Muhlenberg legend, German in the United States#German the official US language?, and http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_026.html for what actually happened. —Angr 20:24, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: That said, English is an official language in the United States—along with French, Spanish, and Hawaiian.  None of them are official federally, but they are official among the various states of the US.  The Jade Knight 10:38, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: No, you said it yourself - English is not an official language at the federal level, ergo it is not an official language of the United States. QED. It may be designated an official language in some states (?), i don't know which, but that does not make it an official language of the US. To argue so would be like arguing the flag of Maryland was an official flag of the US, beacause it had a codified status in one of the states of the Union, when in fact it is the state flag in Maryland, and no more. 62.156.255.22 15:04, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Official language of the U.S. 

message: I have removed the following information which has been tagged with  for at least several months:
*It is also the most studied in China, Japan, Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan.
*Examples [of Euro-English] are the concept of spatial planning, the description of something being “degressive”, and the prefix "Euro-". [The term "Euro-English"] also refers to dialects of English spoken by Europeans for whom English is not their first language, especially since English is frequently used by two Europeans to communicate even when neither of them know English as the first language.
*English spelling is often considered to be one of the most difficult to learn of any language that uses an alphabet
If anyone can find sources for these statements, feel free to re-add them. —Angr 17:15, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unsourced info removed 

message: Should the article be supplemented by references to swear words (which are often sexual), to where new words appear from (hybridisation from existing words, phonetics, text messaging, technology, imports), and generally recognised and significant works of literature which have affected or reflected the language i.e. The King James Bible, Shakespeare? --Flexdream 18:48, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Don't we already have an article on profanity? Maybe a brief mention here, but anything detailed should go there, or we could start a new language-specific English profanity to go with the others in :Category:Profanity by language. —Angr 19:36, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Swearing, new words and classic literature?