Re: New pronunciation of Bangalore


Aidan Kehoe napisal(a):

lots (inabsolute numbers if not in terms of percentages) of people in India grow up
with as much exposure to English as a Luxemburger has to French, that is,
schooling, media, literature.

It seems to me that by this standard many if not most Dutch and
Scandinavians could be labelled native speakers of English. Would you
agree? And if not why not?

Part of the problem is that 'native speaker' is a fuzzy category
usually applied to people who grow up, go to school and conduct most of
their life business in the same language.

It has a lot less application in places with histories of
multi-lingualism, extreme diglossia or a non-local imposed prestige
language. All three of those conditions tend to apply in many places of
India where 'native speaker' is not a terribly viable category period.

-michael farris

.

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