Contrex wrote:
Quote:The issue I had with Joe Nation is that he seems to think that American English is "standard".
Well, buddy, then you have picked a fight with the wrong guy for the wrong reason. I haven't a clue where you got that idea. Did I say that somewhere? Because I don't think there is any such thing as Standard English. Are there standards? Yes. Do they vary from place to place? You betcha.
The standard in an international office is not the same as the standard in a broadcast booth is not the same as the standard on the football pitch is not the same as the standard on A2k.
I work in a little town called New York City. People here speak English, but it's Hispanic English, Nigerian English, French-Canadian English, Canadian English (West), Canadian English(Mid-Country), Guyanese English, Pakistani English, Indian English, Hong Kong, Shandong and Beijing English, West Indies and East Indies English, Irish Northern, Irish Southern and Kerryman Irish,
Texan and thousands more varieties, all of which have their very own music.
The standard I look to most is whether or not I can make myself
better understood to all these speakers. I do that, I hope, by
listening. You can hear a lot as the guy from some long away place tries to figure out how to express "brick chisel" in this thing we call English.
He wants to be better understood too.
"Oh, yes. I understand." is a phrase which causes deep relief.
Joe(It washs over their faces like water.)Nation
