Buffalo (x8) -- a sentence with all words the same

[Darren Dirt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo.

I don't why but stuff like this assures me that Englich will never be The One World Language (But it keeps folks like Steven Pinker employed )

[Mr. Analog]

Oh Reginald... I disagree!
*skreeeeeeeeeee*

I believe it's the flexibility of the language that promotes English to world dominance.

[Tom]

I believe it's the flexibility of the language that promotes English to world dominance.

And here I always assumed it was the world power refusing to learn other languages.

[Mr. Analog]

I believe it's the flexibility of the language that promotes English to world dominance.

And here I always assumed it was the world power refusing to learn other languages.

If that were the case we'd all be speaking Spanish. If you think England was an oppressive Imperial power you have to learn about Spain.

[Tom]

If you think England was an oppressive Imperial power you have to learn about Spain.

I was thinking more along the lines of the States

[Mr. Analog]

If you think England was an oppressive Imperial power you have to learn about Spain.

I was thinking more along the lines of the States

Well, that would be a silly thing to say, seeing how they speak English

[Tom]

Well, that would be a silly thing to say, seeing how they speak English Wink

I'm not sure I follow Course they speak English, and generally _only_ English (and not always that well ), and as the current world power, many people have no choice but to use English.

[Mr. Analog]

Well, that would be a silly thing to say, seeing how they speak English Wink

I'm not sure I follow Course they speak English, and generally _only_ English (and not always that well ), and as the current world power, many people have no choice but to use English.

English was spoken around the world long before the 13 colonies rebelled in the late 18th Century, and while the United States was at war with itself 50 years later, Britain had English speaking dominance around the globe (the sun did not set on the British Empire, so they say).

Prior to English dominance of world trade, the languages of business were Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. With the decline of the Spanish Empire, Britain took over trade routes formerly used by Spain and Portugal. Then with an already burgeoning trade empire flourishing the Industrial Revolution hits and changes the world forever by making commerce the true reigns of power. End of the story is English is the language of business because of the British Empire, not the descendants of a rebellious colony

[Mr. Analog]

Incidentally, in the United States they have no official language law so anyone can use any language they want to and I would suspect they have a higher percentage of non-English speakers than Canada does

[Thorin]

English was spoken around the world long before the 13 colonies rebelled in the late 18th Century, and while the United States was at war with itself 50 years later, Britain had English speaking dominance around the globe (the sun did not set on the British Empire, so they say).

Prior to English dominance of world trade, the languages of business were Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. With the decline of the Spanish Empire, Britain took over trade routes formerly used by Spain and Portugal. Then with an already burgeoning trade empire flourishing the Industrial Revolution hits and changes the world forever by making commerce the true reigns of power. End of the story is English is the language of business because of the British Empire, not the descendants of a rebellious colony

Nicely summed up.

Well, that would be a silly thing to say, seeing how they speak English Wink

I'm not sure I follow Course they speak English, and generally _only_ English (and not always that well ), and as the current world power, many people have no choice but to use English.

Languages Spoken At Home - keep in mind this doesn't show how many people are bi- or trilingual.  There are a surprising number of English speakers that are fluent in Spanish in the US.  In fact, there's over 160 languages spoken in the US, including Dutch (yay! documents in New York were even required by law to be duplicated in Dutch until the mid-1920s - they were trying to preserve the legacy of the New Netherlands, just as we're trying to preserve the heritage of the French in Quebec).

Also, there are more people that speak Mandarin than English.  It's just that many of these people can't afford to travel to non-Mandarin-speaking regions to spread their language.  But that's slowly changing, and in another 50 years Mandarin may well become the primary language of business (for some types of business, like plastic toy assembly, it already is).

I believe it's the flexibility of the language that promotes English to world dominance.

I think this sums up what you're saying:

English has roughly 615,000 non-technical words.  If slang and specialized technical words are added, English has more than 2,000,000 words and is growing at a rate of hundreds to thousands every year.  By comparison, German has about 185,000 non-technical words, French may have less than 100,000, and Spanish even fewer.  The major reason that English has so many more non-technical words is the fact that as it evolved from its Germanic roots, it acquired words from more than 240 other languages.  However, it is unlikely that any one individual knows the meaning of all English words.  Most Americans only use 800-1,000 words in everyday conversation.  A typical American college student knows 20,000-30,000 words  by the time he or she graduates.  While this is 20-37 times more than the average person who has not  gone to  college, it is still less than 2% of all English words.