Free Republic

Schoolchildren are celebrating, commentators are astonished and purists are fuming over what they describe as a scandalous attack on 500 years of French history. In the most sweeping linguistic reform in France for centuries, Le Petit Robert, the nation's premier dictionary, has cast aside tradition to allow alternative spellings for thousands of words. Accents have become optional, consonants can be doubled on a whim and hyphens will float in and out of literary texts under the changes imposed by Alain Rey, the linguist responsible for the opus. Alain Rey He says that the reform has been necessary to enable a...

It was not that long ago that black people in the Deep South could be beaten or killed for seeking the right to vote, talking back to the wrong white man or failing to give way on the sidewalk. People of color who violated these and other proscriptions could be designated “uppity niggers” and subjected to acts of violence and intimidation that were meant to dissuade others from following their examples. The term “uppity” was applied to affluent black people, who sometimes paid a horrific price for owning nicer homes, cars or more successful businesses than whites. Race-based wealth envy...

As panicked politicians prepare to fork over $1 trillion to rescue Wall Street......one villain has slipped notice: illegal immigration, crime-enabling banks and open-borders Bush policies.......cities hardest hit by the foreclosure wave happen to be some of the nation's largest illegal alien sanctuaries. Half of the mortgages to Hispanics are subprime. A quarter of all those subprime loans are in default and foreclosure. The National Council of La Raza and its Development Fund received millions in federal funds to "counsel" on obtaining mortgages with little to no money down; the group almost succeeded in attaching a $10M earmark for itself in...

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A ROMAN coin unearthed by a Wrexham metal detecting enthusiast has been confirmed as one of the oldest ever found in Wales. Retired butcher Roy Page, 69, of Coedpoeth, found the detailed 2,000-year-old coin on a farm near St Asaph when he went on a search there with the Mold-based Historical Search Society earlier this year. Roy gave the tiny silver coin, which depicts two horses being driven by a man on a chariot, to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), who have recently confirmed the specific date that it was made. It is believed to have been brought over some...

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Today, excavators at the Oymaagac mound in the Black Sea city of Samsun's Vezirkopru district are reveling in their potential find, believing the evidence is mounting and Oymaagac will be unveiled as the holder of Nerik. The geographical location of Oymaagac, the impressive representative building on top of the acropolis, and especially the tiny cuneiform writing style on the tablet fragments all suggested the excavators might find Nerik here... the tiny cuneiform writing resembled that on clay tablets from the Bogazkoy/Hattusha archives dealing with Nerik... the writings, along with several ritual texts from the Hittite period, suggested Oymaagac had to...

These two word-clouds give us a view of the contrasts between the acceptance speeches of Obama and Palin. Created using Wordle, I tried to match them, in terms of layout, as closely as I could. It is interesting to note that there are many personal words in Palin's speech. I look forward to the comments.

The world's best female golf players will no longer be required just to be able to drive and chip, but also to speak English, according to a report. Golfweek reported on its website that the LPGA informed players last week that those on the tour at least two years will have to pass an oral evaluation of their ability to speak English. Those who fail would have their memberships suspended, though LPGA deputy commissioner Libba Galloway told Golfweek that players would be helped out in such a scenario. “Hopefully what we’re talking about is something that will not happen,” said...

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Journalists used to complain that George W. Bush's speechwriters slipped into his oratory phrases like America's "wonder-working power" that meant one thing to general audiences and another to evangelical supporters aware of the "wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb." Far-fetched? Maybe, but this year Barack Obama is proving to be a master of that art. "Economic justice" and "restoring fairness to the economy" are two of Obama's favorites. Who can oppose justice and fairness? To many Obama disciples, though, those words mandate not just equality of opportunity but a socialistic equality of result. Some in the general public...

A federal judge ruled Friday that a Wichita Catholic school policy requiring students to speak only English didn't break any civil rights laws.

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Is VFW Post Phone MessageA VFW in Susquehanna County is drawing some attention because of its answering machine message. Some in Montrose wonder if it the right message. The VFW near Montrose is a busy place along Route 706, a place where many in the area come to socialize. But some folks are questioning the post's answering machine message, saying it's not very social at all. "Hello, this is Montrose VFW. We are an English speaking, American establishment. If you do not speak English or believe in America, please hang up," the message says. "Racist. I mean, that's like, this...

A SPANISH couple's language difficulties has cost them several thousand dollars after they mispronounced their destination giving instructions to a Norwegian taxi driver. The couple, who were touring Norway's fjords, wanted to travel to Olden on the country's west coast. Instead their taxi took them to Halden, hundreds of kilometres away, a trip that cost them €3870 ($6600). The pair in their 50s were on a cruise of the fjords when they had to spend a short time in hospital while on a stopover in Stavanger, the Verdens Gang (VG) newspaper reported. Once out of hospital the two decided to...

Make English the official language of the United States Urge your Congressman to support H.R. 997 Senator Barack Obama recently said that instead of worrying about immigrants learning English, Americans "need to make sure your child speaks Spanish." We disagree. While it is clearly an advantage to learn to speak a foreign language in today’s world, Americans have good reason to be worried about the growing numbers of immigrants who refuse to learn English. One of the reasons why they refuse to learn English is that – without the consent of the American people – our government has completely changed...

The Olympics can be a time of learning about the countries of the world – especially some of the more obscure nations. But, if you're tuned into coverage of the Summer Games in Beijing, you might be surprised by what you learnUnited States of America. For instance, what’s the official language of the U.S.? If your guess is English, you would be wrong. English is the official language of Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cameroon (along with French), Canada, of course (along with French), the Cook Islands, Dominica, Fiji (along with Fijian), Gambia, Ghana, Grenada,...

WARNING....PSYCHOLOGICAL NUDITY...ADULT LANGUAGE! The naked TRUTH delivered to independent minded, mature listeners by the winner of the Freedom of Speech Award. THE most exciting talkshow host in the country. Come and join us for live as it happens radio!

Why do we capitalize the word “I”? There’s no grammatical reason for doing so, and oddly enough, the majuscule “I” appears only in English. Consider other languages: some, like Hebrew, Arabic and Devanagari-Hindi, have no capitalized letters, and others, like Japanese, make it possible to drop pronouns altogether. The supposedly snobbish French leave all personal pronouns in the unassuming lowercase, and Germans respectfully capitalize the formal form of “you” and even, occasionally, the informal form of “you,” but would never capitalize “I.” Yet in English, the solitary “I” towers above “he,” “she,” “it” and the royal “we.” Even a gathering...

Are liberals more profane than conservatives? Online, the answer seems to be yes. Profanity, those taboo words banned from the broadcast airwaves, is a feature of many people's daily lives. It's much less so in the establishment media world. TV and radio broadcasts are legally prohibited from using it, most newspapers (including this one) have traditionally refrained from its usage. That's not the case with the Web, where bloggers and readers face no such restrictions. That likely comes as no surprise; what may be surprising, however, is to what degree profanity seems to be a feature more common on one...

Government bans the word 'obese' to describe overweight children Obesity is a growing problem in the UK Parents of primary school children will start getting letters in September telling them how fat their children are. But however much they weigh, no child will ever be described as obese. The Department of Health has found in surveys that the term obese is a turn-off, so instead will use the term “very overweight” for those children whose body mass index exceeds 30, in an attempt to enlist parents’ support. Primary care trusts have been given a detailed set of instructions, and a...

Science magazine this week details the discovery of a stone block in Veracruz, Mexico, that contains a previously unknown system of writing; believed by archeologists to be the earliest in the Americas. The slab - named the Cascajal block - dates to the early first millennium BCE and has features that indicate it comes from the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica. One of the archaeologists behind the discovery, Brown University's Stephen D. Houston, said that the block and its ancient script "link the Olmec civilization to literacy, document an unsuspected writing system, and reveal a new complexity to this civilization." "It's...

Go to the FedEx.com homepage, and select the country drop down list. Notice the first two countries. 1. U.S.A. 2. U.S.A. - Espanol FedEx, when it absolutely has to sell your country down the river.

School Budget Cuts Derail English Language Program By Dean Gray and Jackie Devereaux Coachella Valley, CA – An important English reading fluency program is threatened to end due to severe budget cuts to this year’s school budget. The Valley Partnership, is at the end of a three-year program, funded by an annual grant of $329,000. Without the matching funds the program is at risk and over 20 people lose their paid volunteer positions. Fundraising efforts are still trying to raise $55,000 by August 3rd to meet the target start-up date. The sponsors are asking for donations by philanthropists and charitable...