Job Discussion Forums

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Ah, I see - thanks for the clarification!
Maybe the more relevant distinction in my context is 'big' versus 'small.' I can see that prestige is an entirely different (and probably much more sensitive) aspect to consider.

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

I believe prestige has to do with the context you're in, otherwise every language would be a prestige language. Czech would not be a prestige language outside of Europe. Some languages are more universal and of course have prestige anywhere (English, French, German...).

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

By this (useful) definition, Czech isn't a prestige language within Europe, either, only within the borders of the Czech Rep, and possibly Slovakia!

That's probably why I ranked it in 'non-prestigous' in my initial posting on the subject.

I wonder if Melee's talking about dialects or codes or something when she discusses prestige and lack of it in the speakers in Mexico. Would those non-prestigious utterances be considered officially a different language altogether?

MELEE · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:00 pm Post subject:

Mexico is the home to more than 52 different languages. Many of which do have various dialects, but in no way shape or form are the same as Spanish. Monoligual speakers of these languages can not understand Spanish is the slightest. They are as much a different language from Spanish as Chinese is. Rolling Eyes

Czech is a national langauge there for holds linguistic prestige. Maybe Mexico is too foriegn of an example to be easily grasped. How about Ireland. English vs. Gaelic. Gaelic lacks the prestige of English. While it has been somewhat successfully revived--in comparison to other endangered languages of the world. It still struggles for it's lack of prestige.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 7:03 pm Post subject:

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

My wife is Canadian. A few months ago I took her down the local in Scotland...... She had problems understanding the locals and vice versa.

Next week I'm off to Canada and I have every confidence in my ability to communicate in a foreign language. Wink

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If not I'll get them to buy me beer.

Drunk..... it's an international language

miski · Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 298 Location: Kuwait

Kids speak Arabic with Dad and English with me. We speak a mixture when all together......sometimes kids speak half sentences in English and Aabic or put Arabic gender endings on English words , which is quite amusing!

misterkodak · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:55 pm Post subject:

I speak German with my wife (mainly) but also English and Turkish. Although she's Turkish, German is the dominant language in our relationship. With my oldest daughter ... English. Nothing more. She prefers it this way, somehow. She's a foreign language (Mandarin Chinese) student in college now. My smallest daughter and I speak English and Turkish. It's amazing how much German she has picked up just by being around us and hearing it spoken and having her cousins who come from Germany in the summer to practice with.
Somehow, I think it would be boring if we only spoke English all the time. I do that enough at work. Smile

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

misterkodak · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:04 pm Post subject:

We both grew up in Germany. My wife's father worked there for 30 years. I grew up there as a military brat. My BA is in German Lang. and Lit.

TwinCentre · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 273 Location: Mokotow

Teatime of Soul · Joined: 12 Apr 2007 Posts: 905

We speak binary.

Unless we are telling a joke, then we speak LISP programming language.

Things just sound funnier in LISP.