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Linguistic comradery | ||
Tags: Cultural Identity | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| tritone Senior Member United States reflectionsinpo Joined 6120 days ago 246 posts - 385 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, French | Message 1 of 20 16 February 2010 at 9:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've noticed that speakers of the word's other international languages (spanish, french, portuguese, etc) often feel a social "bond" with people around the world that speak their language. I was thinking about this the other day when reading about the "Lusophone games", which I found fascinating. Some, such as 'hispanics', go as far as to identify with each other ethnically, even if they are from wildly different countries with vastly different cultures and origins.
This is peculiar to me, because no such phenomenon exists between English speakers. There are various international organizations for other languages (i.e "La francophonie"), but none for English. I've rarely even thought about people from other English speaking countries, and much less consider us to be part of a world-wide "community" Question to you: Do you feel a 'bond' with people that speak your native language? Edited by tritone on 16 February 2010 at 11:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6582 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 2 of 20 16 February 2010 at 9:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hell, I feel a bond with English-speakers, and I'm not even a native speaker! I did pick up the language at a young
age, though, and I've lived in the US. To me, there's Sweden, there's the English-speaking countries, and then there's the other countries. I suppose I'd feel some sort of bond to people speaking Swedish outside of Sweden, but I've never actually met one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 3 of 20 16 February 2010 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | ||
If we consider only language as the common link, then I admit that I rarely get an automatic bond. In general, I do get a bit curious when I meet people abroad who speak in a similar way as I, but I hardly feel solidarity or a "bond" with those people just because our native idiolects are virtually identical. To form a "community" I find that you'd need more than just a common language. I can think of the example of other pluricentric languages such as German, Spanish, BCMS/Serbo-Croatian or Malay-Indonesian, where "intra-community" relations can also depend on ethnic consciousness, religion or social class. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Wilco Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6330 days ago 160 posts - 247 votes Speaks: French*, English, Russian | Message 4 of 20 16 February 2010 at 10:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I feel an automatic solidarity and natural bond with anyone speaking French (Arab, African or European). We only share a language, but I think most francophones would agree that we have much more in common, and that it's our duty to help each other. In fact, every time I meet a french-speaking person abroad, it's like meeting an old-friend: we can speak openly about anything, without formalities.
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| Saif Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5612 days ago 122 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Levantine)*, French | Message 5 of 20 16 February 2010 at 10:32pm | IP Logged | ||
Definitely. I feel a bond with my Arab brothers and sisters, but there are other factors at play other than language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tritone Senior Member United States reflectionsinpo Joined 6120 days ago 246 posts - 385 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, French | Message 6 of 20 16 February 2010 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I actually find this to be admirable, but...if somebody ever referred to people in Australia or New Zealand etc. as our "brothers" I would look at them funny and be confused.
There has to have been some kind of academic study done on the subject because this is a significant social phenomenon. What are the reasons behind this? and..why is there no anglophone 'brotherhood'? Edited by tritone on 16 February 2010 at 11:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5495 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 7 of 20 17 February 2010 at 12:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I do agree with you about how speakers of language who have little else in common can
feel an almost instant comradery. You are, however; wrong to say that there is no such organisation for Anglophones. The equivalent organisation to la Francophonie et al. is the Commonwealth of Nations, also known as the British Commonwealth. No, I'm not talking about the Commonwealth realms. The former is an organisation of (mostly) English speaking countries with a colonial connection to the United Kingdom, which includes Commonwealth Realms (Canada, Australia), republics (India, South Africa) and kingdoms not ruled by Elizabeth II (Lesotho, Tonga). The latter, a Commonwealth Realm, is a country in personal union with the United Kingdom and each other, therefore being sovereign and independent but sharing the same monarch. Another point to consider: There is in fact an equivalent organisation to the Lusophone Games... it's the Commonwealth Games. (I have heard before that it is second after the Olympics for a multi-sport event, but I don't have any figures to back this statement). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hello Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5420 days ago 40 posts - 45 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 20 17 February 2010 at 12:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Personally, I think that language comradery can be experienced with any language, but since English is a language used worldwide, I think that language comradery between French speaking people, for example, might be stronger than the language comradery between English speaking people, because French is less used than English, and because several countries where French is official are in different parts of the world ( Quebec,Europe , Africa, etc.) Edited by Hello on 17 February 2010 at 12:39am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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