Esquire Awards

[Thomas Colin]

Spencer wrote :
>However, English is without question the language that will always be
>looked at as the most important language, probably due to the hard work of
>the Oxford English Dictionary folks.  It is still the only language where
>every single word can be defined by looking in a dictionary.  And since
>they were the first to accomplish this feat, we are probably stuck with it.

Hum... Sorry, but I don't agree anymore. First of all, if English is now the 
predominant language it has not "always" been and will not "always" be the 
case. Since languages circulate and evolve and cross-fertilize, u.s.w. it 
seems to me reasonable enough to say so.
Second. I don't know when the fabulous enterprise of the O.E.D was started, 
but there are equivalents in other languages, among which at least one that 
I know of, hmhm... sorry again, French. French lexicon and grammar started 
to be scientifically studied and referenced in the 17th c. if I remember 
well, especially by a group of scholars at the College de Port-Royal (they 
were Jansenistes, a Protestant sect) who produced countless grammars and 
dictionnaries. The most comprehensive French dictionnary is now the Littre 
(acute accent on the "e"), which is both diachronic and synchronic. I can 
tell you, it's BIG (and has just been released on CD-ROM, good idea). 
There's also the Dictionnaire de l'Academie Francaise, a work that has been 
in progress for quiet a few years (they must be tackling the words beginning 
with an L by now, but you have to keep in mind this academy is the retiring 
home for a bunch of doting though eminent scholars with Alzheimer whose 
views on la langue are not particularly progressive. They must be thinking 
that French is and has always been the most important language because THEY 
started THEIR dictionnary).
  My conclusion : Que viva Die polyglossie Pynchonian!
  Best,
Thomas.
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com