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On 12-03-2003 14:54, "Lane, Harold" <hlane@nsf.gov> wrote: > Compare the amount of script it takes in various languages to convey the > same message. English is generally a very concise language. Certainly, > imperialism, power, and 'the places where science has been largely happening > in the last couple hundred years', has had a lot to do with the general use > of English for scientific communication. However, word for word, phrase for > phase, sentence for sentence, and monograph for monograph, English is a very > efficient language for scientific communication. I wonder where we would be > today if another, less efficient/less concise, languguage had dominated. > > Rich Lane > Sorry Rich, this is pure nonsense. It's easy to say this if you are a native speaker of English. I myself consider Dutch a very concise language, much more than English, much more straightforward, its spelling is phonetically much more straightforward than English (differences as in though, tough, through don't exist in Dutch) and because of this and some other reasons as well more efficient and concise than English - I would say perfectly suitable for scientific communication. I can say this because I am native Dutch-speaking, quite fluent in English (and some other languages too), so I think I know what I am talking about. But off course it is nonsense, just like your comments - it's only because it is my mother language that I can say it. Furthermore, Afrikaans (which evolved from Dutch with influences from all kind of less efficient and concise languages spoken in South-Africa, such as English, Hindi and local african languages) doesn't sound as a baby language at all, I would say has an archaic feel, although it isn't archaic at all. In Afrikaans new words are invented easily, really very convenient if you need new words in science. So if we have to vote for a replacement for English, my first vote goes to Dutch, my second to Afrikaans :) -- Paul Lambers Conservator Natuurlijke Historie/ Curator of Natural History Universiteitsmuseum, Universiteit Utrecht Lange Nieuwstraat 106 3512 PN Utrecht, NL Tel.: 00-31-302538716 Fax: 00-31-302538700 E-mail: paul.lambers@museum.uu.nl
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