Subj : Semi-regular BS messages To : Steve Quarrella From : Werner Dworak Date : Thu Sep 14 2000 06:15 pm Hello Steve! WD>> But Great Britain is not too distant, too. SQ> That's true, even if they speak funny English. For me, they speak a fine English and the Americans speak an funny one? 8-))) WD>> Don't overlook that in German many English borrowings exists. SQ> English and German are sister languages. Yes. But not only that. SQ> English has just evolved considerably more in the vocabulary borrowing SQ> department. :-) Indeed. SQ> If I forced myself to use German software, I bet I'd overcome this hurdle SQ> -quickly.- May be. In any case, if there is a real reason to understand the other side, it works well. WD>> [Belgian] Yes, there exist two languages, SQ> I encountered three: Dutch, English, and French. When it comes to Dutch, SQ> I'm stuck, but I can do pretty well with the other two. No, English is no way any mother tongue. But the share of people speaking English is considerably higher than e.g. in Germany. For English books, manuals and the like it rewards more to translate to German than to Dutch, Danish or other small languages. So Dutchmen are more often forced to read the original language. WD>> The same can happen to you in Swiss. [...] The fourth language WD>> Rhaeto-Romanic has no great importance. SQ> Even though I studied Romance languages in college, I have very little SQ> acquaintance with Rhaeto-Romance, and have never even heard it. Don't SQ> they call it "Romansche"? May be. I don't know exactly. Outside that very area (mostly the Grisons, Grischona, Graubnden) there are nearly no people speaking that language. AFAIK all people there speak German (and Italian) too. greetings, Werner --- GED 3.0.1-dam3 * Origin: CCD Ulm Voice 49-7304-919089 oder 96060 (2:2487/9504) .