Date: Sat, 9 Sep 1995 15:20:09 -0400

From: "Christopher R. Coolidge" ccoolidg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MOOSE.UVM.EDU

Subject: Re: English Only



I must confess I'm not even sure what the English language is any more. You

put the following people in a room together: a gang member from Harlem, a

Cockney from East London, an older person from a Kentucky mining town, a

shipyard worker from the Virgin Islands, a college professor from Harvard

Univ., a fisherman from Newfoundland,...OK, that's enough. All of them sup-

posedly speak the same language, but they'll all have a challenge trying to

understand each other.(I can't wait for the Cockney to ask the gang member

if he has any fags)Now, whose English are the powers that be proposing to

prescribe here? The English language will not stay still for anybody, laws

or no laws; if all 50 states pass an English only law, then we'll confound

them by speaking 50 different dialects and pidgins. If we passed a Cherokee-

only law, we'd all speak our own form of pidgin Cherokee colored by our eth-

nic background. What's the difference?