Re: Related languages (Re: A China-Sumer connection)

phippsmartin_at_hotmail.com
Date: 03/11/05 

Date: 10 Mar 2005 16:23:26 -0800

kenney@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote:
> In article <422EFBAC.3E85@worldnet.att.net>,
> grammatim@worldnet.att.net (Peter T. Daniels) wrote:
>
> > Do you have _any_ examples of a "conqueror" imposing their language

> > on the "conquered"?
>
> I have been keeping out of this, because I know my ignorance of the
> subject. In this case, however, I can bring up India, and Africa and
> Australia for that matter. English as a second language and French
for
> that matter are as widely distributed as they are because of the
> colonial expansion. In South America the Spanish and the Portuguese,
> not only tried to suppress the native language but also the native
> culture.

The Japanese forced the Koreans and the Taiwanese to learn Japanese and
suppressed the use of their own languages. The French are descended
from the Gauls, who spoke a very different language before being
conquered by the RomansJesuits in Canada (at least) forced young
natives to go to school and learn only English. But I think Peter was
talking about a conquerer _successfully_ imposing his language. If the
people who no longer speak the old language killed them off then it
could be that the conquerers simply killed everybody who spoke the old
language, but that idea would be discredited by the existance of a
single conquered person who stopped speaking his native language in
favour of the conquerers' language. That there are still native people
in the Americas and Australia even as their languages die out flies in
the face of what Peter has to say. Indeed, what about Latin America?
Surely people in Latin America didn't always speak Spanish and
Portuguese? What happened to their native languages? Or were they all
mute before the Europeans came?

The same principle applies to the spread of Christianity and Islam, or
even Judaism in Old Testament times: the conquerers imposed their
religion on the conquered and strongly suppressed the old religions,
although the remnants of pagan religions live on in the celebration of
Easter and Halloween.

Once again, Peter demonstrates that he doesn't know what he is talking
about, which I admittedly find surprising, given how much he claims to
know.

Martin

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