Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 10:02:51 CST
From: salikoko mufwene mufw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU
Subject: Re: FOR English Only
No other nation that I am aware of is facing the language challenge
that we are up against.
Perhaps not as hysterically? The development of the Sociology of Language
is in part attributable to misguided promises to help Third World countries
solve their economic and political development problems by eliminating
societal multilingualism. The literature dealt with the epiphenomenon and
ignored almost everything that mattered for the "development" of those
countries. Of course, there was also the hypermetropic illusion that those
problems were characteristic of the Third World in the wake on "political
independence."
In spite of our technological advances, such
as this e-mail, communication is breaking down due to language
diversification. With the rate of growth of non-English communities,
it is increasingly difficult to maintain viable communication.
I assume you're talking about the number of different languages spoken
in the US. Right? Has anybody established a maximum number of different
languages appropriate for maintaining viable communication? Obviously it
has to be four or more since Switzerland seems to do ok.
Could you both start by explaining what you mean by "viable
communication?" at what level of interaction?
Sali.
***********************************************************************
Salikoko S. Mufwene
University of Chicago
Dept. of Linguistics
1010 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
s-mufwene[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uchicago.edu
312-702-8531; fax: 312-702-9861