>The advantage of English is its grammatical simplicity,
I beg to differ : the use of prepositional verbs (to go up with, to make
up, to go down with the flu) -- to name one example -- instead of synthetic
and more abstract verbs (monter, constituer, attraper) is complex for many
people (among which Romance language speakers). Simplicity often only means
close to your particular habits, not always of course: everybody seems to
agree that English spelling is complex, but then ideograms...
The main avantage of English is not to be found in some elusive
"simplicity" but more prosaicly in its widespread use, the sizable number of
its native speakers and their political, cultural, economical and military
supremacy. Once this supremacy goes, history tells us, it won't take long
before people find simplicity in another language. (See Rivarol and the
Universality of French).
P. Andries
Dorval (Québec)
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