Re: [OT] Export laws in USA and elsewhere (was RE: Persian or Farsi? (was RE: Decimal separator with more than one character?))

From: John Cowan (jcowan@reutershealth.com)
Date: Wed May 21 2003 - 15:47:20 EDT

  • Next message: Michael Everson: "RE: Persian or Farsi? (was RE: Decimal separator with more than o ne c haracter?)"

    Philippe Verdy scripsit:

    > Another way to say it is that no government controls what is a
    > language. By definition, a language belongs to the people that speak
    > it and use it to communicate with each other or with other communities
    > (so a language is never bound to some national borders).

    This is even more emphatically true of the English language, which is the
    language we are discussing here: its de facto position is such that
    not only does there not exist any de jure definition anywhere, but indeed
    the nations where English is most pervasive do not even bother to make it
    the official language. The norms of written English are determined
    exclusively by Hartree-Fock approximations. 

    -- 
John Cowan       http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        <jcowan@reutershealth.com>
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  `Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)

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