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From: othar@zeus.cs.ucla.edu (Othar Hansson)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Language committees
Message-ID: <2441@curly.ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 23-Oct-86 21:52:58 EST
Article-I.D.: curly.2441
Posted: Thu Oct 23 21:52:58 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Oct-86 04:19:58 EST
References: <3489@utcsri.UUCP> <8209@watrose.UUCP> <8212@watrose.UUCP>
Reply-To: othar@zeus (Othar Hansson)
Distribution: net
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 43
Keywords: linguistic change, language committees, tribal languages

In article <8212@watrose.UUCP> cctimar@watrose.UUCP (Cary Timar) writes:
>In article <8209@watrose.UUCP> rgdutton@watrose.UUCP (Rob Dutton) writes:
>>I hear that in Iceland the government has some committee set up to 
>>monitor the day-to-day use/development of their language, to ensure
>>that it doesn't change in any undesirable way.
>
>Actually most major languages (except English) have such committees. 
>I do know they exist for French and Hebrew, and I believe that such ...
>
>At any rate, this leaves English as the (only?) major language which
>evolves freely as the need arises, rather than being restricted by
>arbitrary rulings of a governing body.

I'd prefer the arbitrary rulings of a governed body to the inept
coinage system that you have in this country: in effect, you let science
writers, newscasters, ad-men and the white house press secretary make up
new vocabulary as they need it.  

In Iceland, we try to do it in a more intelligent and thoughtful manner,
and this has preserved (somewhat) the language from Americanisms.  Of
course, there is some lag time, and a lot of times you just can't come
up with a better word.  However, I think the overall consequence is a much
greater command of the language by the average speaker, because the
average word has a more intelligent (and native) etymology.  Also, this
official policy against linguistic borrowing has kept the language close
to what it was 1000 years ago (as opposed to Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian,
which have all changed radically) - but that also has to do with centuries
of isolation.

This is not to say that Icelanders are particularly xenophobic about
language - most of us know 5 languages, or we wouldn't be able to
survive in the world.  It's just that a "language" is really just a
dialect with an army, and as we Icelanders only have a laughable Coast
Guard, we have to make sure that our language is defended by other
means.




Othar Hansson

   othar@zeus.cs.ucla.edu
   {randvax,ihnp4,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!othar