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Re: Planet of the New Papers
On 8/21/07, john hunt <john.bass@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> There are, I believe, a number of Chinese languages with Mandarin the most
> used and this is undoubtedly the most used native language
Actually, Cantonese has more native speakers. But, anyway, this
doesn't matter, since all of the Chinese languages are written the
same (one of the benefits of using a logographic system in conjunction
with an isolating grammar). As a written language, Chinese outnumbers
the competition.
Anyway, I'm not really debating which language has the most global
impact. It's clearly English, even if Chinese has more speakers,
total. I'm just questioning whether we really need to demand that ALL
papers EVER need to be in English, or whether any of us are even in a
position to demand that. Even if that is to be considered a desirable
goal, I also have to question whether being 90% of the way there
already is really all that deplorable.
> Finally, English is the language used by participants in the DML. QED.
Yes, and we all know that this is the only scientific forum in existence.
--
Mike Keesey