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From: douglas@cxsea.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: "Presently" ?= "Now"
Message-ID: <948@cxsea.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 27-Oct-86 15:24:27 EST
Article-I.D.: cxsea.948
Posted: Mon Oct 27 15:24:27 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Oct-86 22:11:20 EST
References: <3489@utcsri.UUCP> <8209@watrose.UUCP>
Reply-To: douglas@cxsea.UUCP (Douglas Wells)
Distribution: net
Organization: Computer X Inc.
Lines: 34

In article <8209@watrose.UUCP> rgdutton@watrose.UUCP (Rob Dutton) writes:
>In article <3489@utcsri.UUCP> utflis!chai@utcsri.UUCP (Henry Chai) writes:
>>
>>I read somewhere that "presently" does not mean "now", but rather
>>"soon" (as in "He'll be along presently".)  However, I still see
>>everyone else use it as if it means now.  So I looked it up in
  ........
>
>
>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.  The Icelandic language
>currently (presently?) differs very litle from that spoken in the days
>of the Vikings.  Perhaps our federal government should set up some
>task force to study the possibility of monitoring the (Canadian)  
>English and French languages... but by the time the report was published,
>the languages would have evolved too much!
>

The thing that made English the great language that it is was the
Norman Conquest.  After the Normans conquered England, they left the
language alone, because they spoke mostly French.  During this period
the English language flowered because it was left to evolve to best
express the will of the common people.


Go ahead and set up your government monitoring, as the French do now.
My prediction is that "American" will become the language people use
to express themselves.  [How did the Vikings say "microchip"?]

-- 
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||    Douglas  -  "Shoot straight ya bastards.  Don't mess it up."      ||
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