English for everyone?

[jenp_97]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Ali" <Ali at z...> wrote:
> Just thought people might find the following article interesting:

Thanks, Ali - it was interesting.  Personally, I don't see why Bill
Gates would particularly wish to do something like this - even though
I think that I and other linguists will find it interesting to have a
concrete list of dialectal differences available.  Besides, linguists
are always begging for funding, so more power to 'im - if he wants to
buy their doughnuts, that's fine with me.

IMO, it's ridiculous to think that a dictionary like this will signal
the "demise" of the "Queen's English".  If it has any kind of
widespread effect (which I doubt, but that's just me being cynical),
it'll have one of standardizing spelling, and possibly introducing new
words into our vocabularies, but can you REALLY see this killing
standard British (or American or Australian?) English?  First of all,
"standard" is very subjective.  Who defines what is "standard"? 
Secondly, I doubt very much that people who speak standard English are
going to go out and read this HUGE dictionary, become "corrupted" by
it, and then all of a sudden speak a different kind of English.  And
lastly, there are quite a few more insidious influences on the various
dialects of English - television and movies to name a couple.  If
someone is worried about the demise of British English as a "standard"
dialect, then ban American television.

Hmmm... wow, sorry.  I got a little carried away there, didn't I?

Anyway, interesting article.  But someone needs to tell the writer to
proofread - he (or she?) says at the end of the article: "Indeed,
Microsoft says that without the Internet, the dictionary would have
been possible..." when clearly, "wouldn't" was meant.

Besides, I have a quibble with stating that the generally assumed
meaning of "ignorant" is "dumb".  Is it so in British English?  I
always assumed that while an 8-year-old might use it in this way to
impress someone he or she is insulting, most people recognize that
ignorant has a slightly different meaning.  Maybe I'm just naive.

-Jen P., boring the masses.