Catalog / protolog versus Catalogue / protologue

[Eric Dunbar]

> From: Jacques Melot <jacques.melot at ISHOLF.IS>
> Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2002 15:05:09 +0000
> 
>> And this is why French is no longer the "International" language
> 
> Il ne faut pas confondre "international" et "universel". Le
> franais, comme l'anglais, l'espagnol, etc., est une langue
> internationale. Mais le franais n'est pas une langue universelle,
> pas plus que l'anglais ne l'estÊ: pour le moment, il n'y a pas de
> langue universelle, sinon en considŽrant comme inexistante ou
> quantitŽ nŽgligeable une grande partie de l'humanitŽ.

When/if China ever comes on-line in the world stage (probably when China and
US stop their eternal bickering and mutual protectionism) English is going
to seem like rather large niche language. With the numbers of Chinese in
China (and, now outside too ;) the regional dialects are more widely spoken
than nearly any language but English.

It'll be interesting to see the consternation of Anglophiles then (I don't
imagine it'll happen very quickly, and I'm not convinced it'll happen at all
-- English is associated with half of the world's richest 20% (US/Canada,
Australia, UK) & spoken quite commonly as a second (or third or fourth)
language by the other half of the world's richest 20% (Europe, some parts of
Asia).

Sincerely, Eric.