In a message dated 6/17/04 8:32:44 AM, Peter Fowler writes: << There is only one English and that is THE Queen's English. >>
Sorry. If you have studied orchid evolution at all, you know that if you start out with one species and it becomes widely dispersed, there are divergent forms, which we call subspecies. The same thing happens to languages. The English spoken in the United States is not the Queen's English. You might call it a subspecies. Have you ever tried to tell a Quebecois that his French is Chirac's French? If you open a good Spanish dictionary, like Cassell's, it tells you all the major differences between Latin American Spanish and Castilian. This is just as natural as speciation in living organisms. Even Latin has evolved. Botanical Latin is not Caesar's Latin, which greatly confuses people who don't know. So Americans and British both speak English, but not the same identical language. You should hear the indignation I get when I tell British bonsai artists that it is perfectly legal for an American citizen on United States territory to call Pinus sylvestris Scotch pine. ;-) Iris
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