sexist language

[Clay M Bond]

.RM79/
Frederic Maffray:


>It's funny, this  newsgroup gets  cluttered every   month  by  yet
>another (American) person  who starts again the  usual  discussion
>about English beign the richest  language,  with the most nuances,
>the most words, etc.  In a word "the best language in  the world."

1.  I am an American.
2.  Though debatable, Arabic probably has a larger vocabulary than English.
3.  Vocabulary size is irrelevant to the relative "subtilty" of a language.
4.  "The best language in the world" is a phrase I would not use.


>This usually does not even elicit  accusations  of chauvinism. But
>if  one person who  happens  to be   French does  just  the  same,
>obviously with his tongue in cheek, he is immediately flamed.

Obviously?  No, not at all, particularly as commonplace as that attitude
is.


>Why don't you let  "French = chauvinistic"  on the same shelf with
>"Jew = greedy",  "Black = dirty"  and "Hispanic = lazy"? (Assuming
>of course that  you  do not subscribe to  these stereotypes in the
>first place, which I may doubt.)

I might say the same to you, adding of course, "American = xenophobic."
Where I come from we would call this the pot calling the kettle black.
And you may, or may not, doubt as you wish; you're perfectly free to
be as bigoted as you accuse others of being.

You'd better do something about that chip on your shoulder.  Somebody
may knock it off one of these days, particularly if you're living on
American wages.



Andreas Stolke:

>Bussmann's dictionary states that the original umlaut (the initial
>assimilation) is indeed an all-germanic phenomenon, i.e. occurred
>independently in all germanic languages. Again, due to later

No, absolutely not.  One of the distinguishing hallmarks of the Eastern
Germanic languages (Gothic) was that it had no umlaut.  However, most
Germanicists (and their articles) use the phrase "all Germanic languages"
(or words to that effect), when in fact they mean, "all North and West
Germanic languages."  Why, I wonder, is Wulfila so ignored?  :-)


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