What languages do you speak?

[Charlie Reams]

I based the list of languages on this website which is the best data I could find, but feel free to bitch about it to prove how you're much cleverer than I am

[Marc Meakin]

The only notable omission I could find is Afrikaans and Maori.
Not that I know anyone that can speak either.
Edit,just thought of Gaelic, Welsh and Cornish.

[Charlie Reams]

The only notable omission I could find is Afrikaans and Maori.
Not that I know anyone that can speak either.

Maori has 8000 speakers in the UK.

[Michael Wallace]

Relevant.

[Edwin Mead]

We could do away with all these languages (and this poll) if everyone learnt Esperanto. The world would be a much simpler place.

[Charlie Reams]

We could do away with all these languages (and this poll) if everyone learnt Esperanto. The world would be a much simpler place.

And much less interesting.

[Marc Meakin]

I am (ef)fluent in Bullshit.

[Edwin Mead]

We could do away with all these languages (and this poll) if everyone learnt Esperanto. The world would be a much simpler place.

And much less interesting.

I think that Esperanto is much more glamorous in my daydreaming mind, where I foresee a harmonious world where everybody speaks one ridiculous 'fictional' language.

In reality, I agree completely with you. Hence why I have not yet learned Esperanto and have no plans to do so.

[Charlie Reams]

Hence why

You'll have the Tautological Police Of Tautologies on you...

[Miriam Nussbaum]

My "other" are Finnish and Hebrew, but 1) I'm not from the UK and 2) both of those are just a result of me going out of my way to learn cool non-Indo-European languages, rather than any more legit linguistic background. (I've studied both for less than two years.)

[Gavin Chipper]

We could do away with all these languages (and this poll) if everyone learnt Esperanto. The world would be a much simpler place.

And much less interesting.

Not that I think we should do as he suggested, but in some ways it would be more interesing - like we could talk to pretty much anyone.

[David O'Donnell]

Hence why

You'll have the Tautological Police Of Tautologies on you...

You're mellowing Charlie. I recall a similar slip (Martin Gardner) I think and you told him you'd be hitting him right now. What's going on? Is it age-related? Say it ain't so - I love watching you running people out of the forum, is this going to end?

PS You're going to run me outta town now aren't you?

[Charlie Reams]

Not that I think we should do as he suggested, but in some ways it would be more interesing - like we could talk to pretty much anyone.

Fair point. I think I'm happier with the current trade-off, though.

PS You're going to run me outta town now aren't you?

I have tried but you're too bloody stupid to notice.

[Ben Hunter]

We could do away with all these languages (and this poll) if everyone learnt Esperanto. The world would be a much simpler place.

And much less interesting.

Not that I think we should do as he suggested, but in some ways it would be more interesing - like we could talk to pretty much anyone.

That wouldn't really be more interesting. Think of the amount of boring people there are on the planet. It's more interesting when there's a language barrier between them and they have to play charades and pictionary to communicate. Besides, there's something like nearly a billion fluent English speakers in the world already and only about two thousand of them are interesting; adding another five-and-a-half billion won't shake things up that much.

[Edwin Mead]

Hence why

You'll have the Tautological Police Of Tautologies on you...

You're mellowing Charlie. I recall a similar slip (Martin Gardner) I think and you told him you'd be hitting him right now. What's going on? Is it age-related? Say it ain't so - I love watching you running people out of the forum, is this going to end?

PS You're going to run me outta town now aren't you?

I love being criticized here. In real life, I'm forever criticizing others for their bad English, so it's nice to see a forum where people can be castrated for their grammatical errors. I learn from my mistakes and then pass this on to others. So you're welcome to hit me, Charlie.

[Charlie Reams]

I love being criticized here. In real life, I'm forever criticizing others for their bad English, so it's nice to see a forum where people can be castrated for their grammatical errors. I learn from my mistakes and then pass this on to others. So you're welcome to hit me, Charlie.

"Hence why" is one of those errors which amuses me more than upsets me (I guess all grammatical errors are in that region really), so if I hit you it will be for some other reason.

[Peter Mabey]

... people can be castrated for their grammatical errors. I learn from my mistakes and then pass this on to others. So you're welcome to hit me, Charlie.

Especially below the belt

[Gavin Chipper]

I love being criticized here. In real life, I'm forever criticizing others for their bad English, so it's nice to see a forum where people can be castrated for their grammatical errors. I learn from my mistakes and then pass this on to others. So you're welcome to hit me, Charlie.

"Hence why" is one of those errors which amuses me more than upsets me (I guess all grammatical errors are in that region really), so if I hit you it will be for some other reason.

I don't think I'm the only one that thinks you're a bit bipolar in terms of "this is an error" and "loads of people say this now so tough shit - get used to it".

[Charlie Reams]

I don't think I'm the only one that thinks you're a bit bipolar in terms of "this is an error" and "loads of people say this now so tough shit - get used to it".

I'm sure I'm not consistent on this, but the approach I try to follow is this:-

1) I do know how to obey the traditional rules of English, including ones with which I don't really agree, just because that's sometimes necessary to keep people onside. Like everyone, I'm still learning these (e.g. uninterested vs disinterested) and I'm always keen to learn more.

2) I have my own opinions on what constitutes correct usage, and I'll usually try to defend those on some kind of general principles rather than ad hoc arguments like "this verb goes with this preposition because I say so".

3) I usually defend published dictionaries, even when they disagree with me, because they have access to a lot more data and expertise than I do.

So that's at least three different perspectives that I represent at different times, and I'm probably not always clear which hat I'm wearing.