[YG Conlang Archives] > [engelang group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >
John E. Clifford scripsit: > Sounds about right. Languages tend to go with the sword or (when or > if there is a difference) the money. Commerce and religion, mostly. The sword actually doesn't work well: most empire-builders don't care what languages the conquered speak. Germanic-speakers have conquered a lot of territory, but very little of it actually became Germanic-speaking, with the exceptions of England (where there may have been a plague) and Prussia (genocide). -- John Cowan cowan@hidden.email http://ccil.org/~cowan The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his own skull; therefore he approaches the programming task in full humility, and among other things he avoids clever tricks like the plague. --Edsger Dijkstra