Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site scc.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!pyramid!pesnta!scc!steiny
From: steiny@scc.UUCP (Don Steiny)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Easy languages
Message-ID: <632@scc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Feb-86 23:07:35 EST
Article-I.D.: scc.632
Posted: Thu Feb 13 23:07:35 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Feb-86 04:38:04 EST
References: <77@druhi.UUCP> <3550004@csd2.UUCP> <402@watmum.UUCP>
Organization: Don Steiny Software
Lines: 31
Summary: This is loonie

In article <402@watmum.UUCP>, tjsmedley@watmum.UUCP (Trevor J. Smedley) writes:
> >>As for spoken language, it has been proven that English is the easiest
> >>language because all other languages are derived from it.
>                    ^^^
> >	Also most European Languages are derived from English and have
> >a large number of words from common roots.
> 
> All other languages? Most European languages?
> 
> "All other languages" is simply false. Chinese, Russian, Finnish and
> Hungarian certainly are not derived from English.
> 
	I hope that this nonsense does not continue to propogate.
The original posting was a joke about transformational grammar and
the author stated that it was a joke in the posting.  Someone took
him seriously and now more people are.    

	The original posting joked that all languages were derived
from English because Noam Chomsky did his original work on TG on
English and postualted a structure (S => NP VP) for all languages.
Some papers (Pullum) have shown that this is not universal.   The
author of the original posting is a competent linguist and was 
commenting on chauvinism, not suggesting that all languages
were derived from English.

-- 
scc!steiny
Don Steiny @ Don Steiny Software 
109 Torrey Pine Terrace
Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060
(408) 425-0382