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At 11/20/05 12:16 PM, Loch_Ness_Monster wrote:

At 11/20/05 12:10 PM, -LazyDrunk- wrote: Fancy a fag at the petrol?

US population ~ 300 million
British population ~ 60 million

Seems to me like you're speaking our language.

England made it first, population means nothing.

Anyway, American certainly isn't a language. There are differences between British and American English, but nowhere near enough for it to be classed as another language. We can understand each other perfectly, which is more than any of us could do for a different language.

Well, what exactly constitutes a new language? If it's merely comprehension, I could write you a nice German story that any English-literate person could easily understand.

At 11/20/05 12:23 PM, -LazyDrunk- wrote: Well, what exactly constitutes a new language? If it's merely comprehension, I could write you a nice German story that any English-literate person could easily understand.

OK, if you're going to be clever about it then I suppose we could say that I'm typing in Swahili right now. Let's keep things in the real world here, anybody with the slightest shred of common sense will realise that Americans, like Australians, Canadians, ect all speak English. I don't see how some people find it so hard to comprehend.

I'm just wondering what defines a language and makes it unique . . . sentence structure, grammar, common nouns . . . you know? Someone's gotta take the other side of the argument to find out exactly why American should or shouldn't be considered a language.

I speak English and German, but I'm most able in an american dialect, opposed to a cockney or aussie dialect.

All I'm trying to find out is what validates a language. We've got 300 million people that speak american english, more than the native tongue, so that would lend at least partial credibility to the argument that american is another language. While we've both got similar cultures and linguistic influences, we've been essentially apart from England for 200+ years. This removal from direct influence allowed America to form and develop it's own dialect, even subdialects (midwest accent, east coast, southern).

I'm just wondering when anything can really be considered a "new" language. Is it possible? If yes, how so?

At 11/20/05 12:34 PM, i-hope-you-die wrote:

This removal from direct influence allowed America to form and develop it's own dialect, even subdialects (midwest accent, east coast, southern).

and england doesnt? Geordie, Cockney, people in Blithe (or however its spelt) i cant hardly understand people from there, and thats only a short distance from Newcastle (geordie),

even Sunderland which is only a 10 minute drive, last time i was there my dad was asking directions, and i couldnt understand what the hell he was saying for the most part

its not a language, its a dialect

At 11/20/05 12:43 PM, -dELta- wrote:

At 11/20/05 12:34 PM, i-hope-you-die wrote:

This removal from direct influence allowed America to form and develop it's own dialect, even subdialects (midwest accent, east coast, southern).

and england doesnt? Geordie, Cockney, people in Blithe (or however its spelt) i cant hardly understand people from there, and thats only a short distance from Newcastle (geordie),

Never said it didn't. I'm just asking what defines a language. Are there only X amounts of languages, and all spoken communication must fall into them, or can the ascension of a new language be determined by static factors (population, grammar, spelling, structure, etc.)?

It's alright guys, give it 20 years, and we won't have to worry about calling the English langauage American. We'll start calling the Spanish Language American. In other words. Esponal, will become Americana.

If it was, im pretty sure that the word "fuck" would probobly be the most commonly used word.

Im also pretty sure that it would be different for each clique/group. Noting that america just loves stereo types, each one would play on certain characteristics, such as saying fuck every other word, or having all nerds only talk in "hacker language".

It is in essence its own language now, simply because in UK English, certain words have extra letters or different spelings than the equivalent words in US English, and thus different pronunciations.

At 11/20/05 11:53 AM, Dacheater wrote: Its just a diffrent way of speaking english.
Although sometimes stupid americans act as thoughw ords don't exist because they've never heard of them

What's "thoughw" and "ords?"

>: )

though and words dumbass >:-)

If Americans speak American then Canada would have to speak Canadian and Mexicans would have to speak Mexican. Mexicans speak Spanish.

No it is not.

At 11/20/05 12:11 PM, -LazyDrunk- wrote: I couldn't understand a word the Canadian truckers ever said whenever they'd drop off/pick up a load at my packaging/assembly plant. Ever talked with a true French Canadian?

Yea I have actually... I seemed to understand the gist of it too. Maybe you didn't understand due to the accents... and they do speak a different kind of English. since a lot of the time English is a second language for them. I was just talking about the english speaking Canadians.

It's called "American English". So they kind of have their own language. There's also Australian English and Canadian English.

At 11/20/05 02:27 PM, LittleMissVixen wrote:

At 11/20/05 12:11 PM, -LazyDrunk- wrote: I couldn't understand a word the Canadian truckers ever said whenever they'd drop off/pick up a load at my packaging/assembly plant. Ever talked with a true French Canadian?

Yea I have actually... I seemed to understand the gist of it too. Maybe you didn't understand due to the accents... and they do speak a different kind of English. since a lot of the time English is a second language for them. I was just talking about the english speaking Canadians.

Canadian english (as 1st language) and american english really are very much the same. It's pretty easy to understand eachother and whatnot, but there are still terms foreign to american english like chesterfields and pop.

The US and Canada have supersimilar cultures and live in a region where citizens can readily interact with eachother, smoothing out and assimilating any differences or new terms that can come about in our language. We don't have that close connection with England, despite having immense cultural roots there.

-----------------------------

I'm still looking for someone to try to outline what makes a language a language though.

At 11/20/05 02:34 PM, -LazyDrunk- wrote: Canadian english (as 1st language) and american english really are very much the same. It's pretty easy to understand eachother and whatnot, but there are still terms foreign to american english like chesterfields and pop.

So if they're quite similar, would that mean that Canadians would be speaking American then (if there was such thing as the American language I mean)?
(sorry if this makes no sense at all... I'm having a bad day)

At 11/20/05 02:40 PM, LittleMissVixen wrote:

At 11/20/05 02:34 PM, -LazyDrunk- wrote: Canadian english (as 1st language) and american english really are very much the same. It's pretty easy to understand eachother and whatnot, but there are still terms foreign to american english like chesterfields and pop.

So if they're quite similar, would that mean that Canadians would be speaking American then (if there was such thing as the American language I mean)?

To me, Canadians speak english just as Americans speak english. I'm sure you've got a pretty good array of dialects within Canada, right? If one were to deem american a true language and not an offshoot of english, then canadian could certainly be its own language also.

It all depends on where we draw the line :)

(sorry if this makes no sense at all... I'm having a bad day)

Don't worry, it makes perfect sense. For what it's worth, I hope your day brightens up a bit.

Thought I'd just toss out Webster's first definition of language:

"Main Entry: lan·guage
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, from langue tongue, language, from Latin lingua -- more at TONGUE
1 a : the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community."

Words and pronunciation would indicate the US and Canada both have their own languages, but again, community can be interpretted different ways.

At 11/20/05 11:55 AM, theabominablematt wrote:

At 11/20/05 11:54 AM, Bionic_Zain wrote: American is in fact it's own language.

we use words from French, latin, spanish, german, indian. and Several inflections that are not proper english in any sence.

Such as?

Such as dude, Gnarly, Chillin, homie,

At 11/20/05 12:10 PM, -LazyDrunk- wrote:

At 11/20/05 12:06 PM, McWillyNuggets wrote: Dont bullshit, make your own language and dont rip ours you cheap wankers

Fancy a fag at the petrol?

US population ~ 300 million
British population ~ 60 million

Seems to me like you're speaking our language.

But honestly how many of those 300 million can speak english, american or aother wise.

Who cares? As long as people understand what I'm saying it's fine with me.

At 11/20/05 11:52 AM, wesdood wrote: Me and LittleMissVixen were having a conversation on weather American is it's language, since it's much differnt than proper english

"Whether"

At 11/20/05 11:54 AM, KakiharaTheKiller wrote: , not worth of a dictionnary.

O RLY?

At 11/20/05 06:09 PM, ChocloMan wrote:

At 11/20/05 11:54 AM, KakiharaTheKiller wrote: , not worth of a dictionnary.

O RLY?

Yes rly! ;D