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Author Topic: Why Is English the Most Used Language?  (Read 2735 times)

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Offline Twice dyed

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Re: Why Is English the Most Used Language?
« Reply #25 on: June 01, 2026, 08:29:21 PM »
I wasn't Catholic when I saw my aunt in Paris, but I have read archives of Church doctors and Saints, faithful, etc. French can be beautifully applied to describe faith, since there are etymologies that are lost in English. As well as describing a life story, elegant language but so was pre-WWII English in a way. My point being modern French is still more elegant than modern English,...
His Excellency Cardinal Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was in Rome for the conclave in 1903. In a conversation he was asked if he spoke French. He simply replied that he didn't know French at all. So that person was going to teach the cardinal a lesson of sorts..."if you don't speak French you have no chance to become pope!!"  The future St.Pius X smiled at him and said: paraphrased: "Great! I have no intention to be pope anyway!".  I think the Vatican still has his return train ticket to Venice in the museum... About 9 months later these two met again, and Pius X spoke perfect French with him. Goodhearted, brilliant, devoted - we need another pope like St Pius X.  :pray:

Hey, tomorrow is his birthday!  b. 1835 AD.  Someone should remind the neoSSPX. .

St.Pius X, pray for us+


Re: Why Is English the Most Used Language?
« Reply #26 on: June 01, 2026, 10:59:14 PM »
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.
That reminded me one day at school, I simply said "my phone is out of power" and the other kid laughed at me and said "who tf says that? you just say your phone's dead!" I was so confused, how could an electronic device be alive or dead, since it doesn't have life? My autism does not go well with many slangs.
I wonder if it's possible to insist proper standard English (British spelling, received pronunciation) in the US. I believe American English is cancerous. To spell "Z" like a heavy "C" was already killing me.


Re: Why Is English the Most Used Language?
« Reply #27 on: June 01, 2026, 11:15:34 PM »
Another thing was: why call a toilet "bathroom" while it has no showering/bathing facilities? And I remember in university, one assignment for us to do says "measure the lavatories." And my assignment partner, some American white girl, asked: "what did they mean lavatories? Are we measuring the whole bathroom?" I had to take a deep breath, and pointed at the washing basin, and said: "THIS is a lavatory. Lava means wash in Latin. Lavatory is where you wash your hands. They just call toilets lavatories because they don't want to say toilets." She looked at me like looking at some other species, not completely convinced but went with it anyway. Hey, I was the ESL one ;)

Re: Why Is English the Most Used Language?
« Reply #28 on: June 02, 2026, 07:09:57 AM »
These stories demonstrate that the language is interesting. Television destroyed many regional dialects.

Re: Why Is English the Most Used Language?
« Reply #29 on: Yesterday at 06:40:39 AM »
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?
My father named me. My mother had no say in it. She wanted to name me Samuel Anne Caravaggio. Carmine had nothing to do with it, it was my fathers last name since before that time. But I was planned to be Carvaggio. My parents weren't married so the laws back then said my family could choose. My mother intended on keeping me home anyways. Praise God his family stayed close and convinced him to step in a little, it lasted until I was 7, him showing up at open house for school and birthdays. "At work" meant with his other children until they'd grown up, and working. My father had Carmine written on his American Social Security card. He was already decades into using the name so he decided it would be mine after there was an outrage about "Samuel Anne." I have no clue why Anne. But it was 2008, everyone especially my father was business minded and they still had hope America had a future. Not like nowadays where I notice families keep all their traditions in tact. Even adopting others like "BeyoncĂ©" and whatnot.

I don't hold myself like one but I was the black sheep in my family, only child with my two parents together, it wasn't always that way though, people stepped in and did their part for me, but some of them quit when I got older, so I don't like not only America but also a lot of my individual family, but I don't mind most of them. I realize a lot of my life was being closer to my family, which for me was my ethnic roots, rather than my parents and I felt natural gravitation toward them. 

Regardless, even now exposing my bias I thunk French is much more elegant.