Picking up on some of the lines from the language debate, I thought this may
interest some people:
"We should remember that it was publishers and printers who eventually
standardised the spelling of English, after a century or two of anarchy. Thus today
Standard English speakers around the world can agree on the conventionally
correct spelling of words, and can use the dictionary for guidance. However, this
universality has its price . . . [those who] are not speakers of Standard English -
suffer through being branded poor spellers. Many Creole speakers are
themselves likely to have suffered from this, their writing seen as just bad English
in the education system. But proclaiming a standard Creole will necessarily mean
that many people actually speak, and write, non-standard Creole. History is in
danger of repeating itself"
How do you spell Patwa? Mark Sebba, Critical Quarterly 1996 38.4 pp61-62.
Oh no, published in England _and_ in English, damn. Does this count in this case? I
dont think this debate is quite as straightforward as Paul T. seems to think it is...
We would do well to remember that when discussing English and Non-English in
this discussion we are referring explicitly to publications and as such to a whole
series of textual operations based, in the main, around the dubious notions of
clarity and objectivity. It seems to me that the academy may be both cause and
effect of this problem and the debate.
Spoken language however is always open and different at every point.
I remember reading something interesting on Rigoberta Menchus attitudes and
opinions on learning and speaking different (dominant) languages; Ill try and find
it, perhaps Sarah Radcliff knows more about this....?
Paul
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