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Author Topic: Why Is English the Most Used Language?  (Read 2737 times)

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Online alancarmine

Re: Why Is English the Most Used Language?
« Reply #20 on: June 01, 2026, 03:43:48 AM »
Quote from: Philothea3 on May 31, 2026, 12:47:11 AM
So you're actually French. Why the name Alan?
Btw I always cringe whenever I mentioned anybody with a French name to an American and they automatically assumed it was a black person. I was actually quite surprised how frequently blacks take French names when they actually had nothing to do with French for a long time, not even from former French colonies or anything. Just like Beyonce, I always thought that was a French singer until I looked it up one day, oh well.
I wasn't sure why you mentioned your great aunt's name until I looked it up. I don't follow celebrities so I had no clue.
No one in my family is French besides their kids. Originally Bulgarian, Belgian but France and Swiss acclimated. My Nonna chose to come to America, with her kids skipping new European culture and settled in New Bern, NC and Suches, Ga. My Nonna spoke French like they did. My father went to American school and got it beat out of him, got heavily discouraged. My other side is Italian, who also settled in Georgia, where my father and mother met and where my last name comes from. Alan because I was born in English speaking America and intended to stay here. Powerful, I like it. James, my middle name, comes from Jacques. Nonna chose it. Carmine is altered from Caravaggio. Carmine coming from my great-grandfather's middle name. My other relatives use Carmine as well, and it became an open family thing, because my Father who created the name raised a lot of his younger relatives to go by Carmine, it's treated like a double last name so it seems like I have a huger family than I do, we all used to go by the same last name. Some dropped it.

To simplify: I'm ethnically Italian and Belgian and Bulgarian. 1st generation American from a Belgium-born American raised Dad and Italian mom with pagan roots in Rome. I use the French language and have hung onto it since I was introduced to learn it myself through my Nonna (grandma). I think and speak in it all the time internally, I prefer saying prayers that way, I've been told I have a unique accent.

That's the simplest it gets without getting other non sequitors involved. My late grandmother was born in Geneva, Switzerland but my grandfather had other children by that point, etc.
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Online alancarmine

Re: Why Is English the Most Used Language?
« Reply #21 on: June 01, 2026, 04:08:23 AM »
Quote from: alancarmine on June 01, 2026, 03:43:48 AM
No one in my family is French besides their kids. Originally Bulgarian, Belgian but France and Swiss acclimated. My Nonna chose to come to America, with her kids skipping new European culture and settled in New Bern, NC and Suches, Ga. My Nonna spoke French. My father went to American school and got it beat out of him. 1970s America. My father and mother met and that's where my last name came from.

Alan because I was born in English speaking America and intended to stay here. Powerful, I like it. James, my middle name, comes from Jacques. My Nonna chose it. Carmine is from Caravaggio. Coming from my great-grandfather's middle name. My other relatives use Carmine as well, it became an open family thing. My Father who used the name first raised a lot of his younger relatives to go by Carmine, it's treated like a double last name or nickname so it seems like I have a huger family than I do. I am the real, last living Carmine. Not the only Caravaggio. 

Greed, nicknames and moving once every decade or more is a common theme for my family. Makes it difficult to tell about my heritage. The pieces are all there for you, though, if I could I would pin this to my profile. 

To simplify: I'm ethnically Italian and Belgian and Bulgarian. 1st generation American from a Belgium-born American raised Dad and Italian mom with pagan roots in Rome. I use the French language and have hung onto it since I was introduced to learn it myself through my Nonna (grandma). I think and speak in it all the time internally, I prefer saying prayers that way, I've been told I have a unique accent.

That's the simplest it gets without getting other non sequitors involved. My late grandmother was born in Geneva, Switzerland but my grandfather had other children by that point, some of my ancestors are Armenian, etc.
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Offline WorldsAway

Re: Why Is English the Most Used Language?
« Reply #22 on: June 01, 2026, 05:16:24 AM »
Quote from: alancarmine on June 01, 2026, 03:43:48 AM
No one in my family is French besides their kids. Originally Bulgarian, Belgian but France and Swiss acclimated. My Nonna chose to come to America, with her kids skipping new European culture and settled in New Bern, NC and Suches, Ga. My Nonna spoke French like they did. My father went to American school and got it beat out of him, got heavily discouraged. My other side is Italian, who also settled in Georgia, where my father and mother met and where my last name comes from. Alan because I was born in English speaking America and intended to stay here. Powerful, I like it. James, my middle name, comes from Jacques. Nonna chose it. Carmine is altered from Caravaggio. Carmine coming from my great-grandfather's middle name. My other relatives use Carmine as well, and it became an open family thing, because my Father who created the name raised a lot of his younger relatives to go by Carmine, it's treated like a double last name so it seems like I have a huger family than I do, we all used to go by the same last name. Some dropped it.

To simplify: I'm ethnically Italian and Belgian and Bulgarian. 1st generation American from a Belgium-born American raised Dad and Italian mom with pagan roots in Rome. I use the French language and have hung onto it since I was introduced to learn it myself through my Nonna (grandma). I think and speak in it all the time internally, I prefer saying prayers that way, I've been told I have a unique accent.

That's the simplest it gets without getting other non sequitors involved. My late grandmother was born in Geneva, Switzerland but my grandfather had other children by that point, etc.
I'm not following the Caravaggio->Carmine connection. Caravaggio was your mother's or father's surname? I would assume your mother, as it's Italian (quite uncommon name as well), but you say it was your father who altered it?
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Offline Kolar

Re: Why Is English the Most Used Language?
« Reply #23 on: June 01, 2026, 07:34:55 AM »
The expression "lingua franca" literally means the French language. But what the expression means is the language used as a common language used by people from different places. Up until sometime in the 20th century French was the lingua franca, the language of business and diplomacy. But after the USA won the two world wars English became the lingua franca. When a Chinese man and a French man meet to talk business they now speak English. One hundred years ago they would have spoken French. English is not the language of the UN, Nato, the EU and other international organizations. 
English is a difficult language to learn because it is a mongrel language. And unlike French English does not object to absorbing words from other languages. The Angles and the Saxons were German tribes. English has German roots. William the Conqueror, 1066, a French influence came in. There are also Latin, Greek, Spanish and other influences. Silent letters had confusion for those trying to learn the language. The Q was invented to replace the CU sound but then some traditionalist said we have to have the U so now we cannot use a Q without a U.
There are many examples of sounds. "F" but also "PH" is one.
Noah Webster did not like the English. He is responsible for changing the spelling of words in the USA because he wanted the USA to have a different language than England. He published the dictionary for America so now we have two spelling in English, British and American. And there are many differences. This makes English more complicated.
And then there is the slang. A GE repair man told me this story. GE moved their American call center to somewhere in Asia. But finally had to move it back because the Asians couldn't understand the Americans. My fridge is dead. Dead!?? Yeah, it kicked the bucket. It's dead.
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Offline Seraphina

Re: Why Is English the Most Used Language?
« Reply #24 on: June 01, 2026, 06:36:02 PM »
English IS a strange language with idioms, slang, fad words that come and go within a couple of years or less. For foreigners, it can be very confusing and sometimes, actually dangerous. The use of English in international aviation has always been a mystery to me. There have been a few tragic crashes because communications between the cockpit and ATC were poor. 
There are many forms of English and different accents, so that English speakers within the same nation, (USA!) do not understand one another. 
My Dad worked with international scientific community. Communications at his workplace often fell to the level of hilarity. Those employed on site ranged from unskilled manual laborers to Nobel Prize winning physicists. Just about every language on earth including different forms of English were spoken by at least a few people. The official language of laboratory was “American English.” It begged the question, “Whose American English?”  
Not infrequently, someone would call our house (back in the age of landlines only), and someone other than Dad would answer the phone. They’d leave a message that one of us would write down what we thought we heard. My sister once took a message from, “a Chinese guy, Ho says ‘Brady Addict is getting high’ so you should call Pete before too far.”  She had no idea what the man was talking about. Amazingly, Dad deciphered the message. I don’t recall the entire translation, but the caller was Japanese, not Chinese as my sister believed, and “too far” was 24, as in 24:00 o’clock, midnight! As for “Brady Addict getting high,” I don’t remember. There were many unusual characters, mostly physicists, walking around the place. 
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