Re: NAC language suppression

Oppression?  In India, there are now what, 8 official languages? 
Including
English.  The Brits there didn't stop everyone using their own
languages,
they just insisted that governing be done in English...

Remember that these days, worldwide English is becoming the lingua
franca
for business, aviation, computers, etc...  There are more English
speakers
in China now than there are in Great Britain (since vast numbers of
Chinese
are learning English as a second language, not specifically to get along
better with the English speaking western nations, but because they can
use
it to speak to everybody else...).

Many people (well, in govt and business) in South America are learning
English for the same reasons.  I think much of that population by the
late
21st century will speak some to good English already - before the NAC
take
over.

English would, I'm sure, remain the dominant language of the NAC, by
virtue
of its vested position in the real power base (the Brit/Can/Americans
who
run everything) at the very least.  

On the other hand, in Canada, we run things with two official languages
(well, at the Federal level anyway... there is only one officially
bilingual province - New Brunswick - but most of the others offer at
least
some govt services in the other official language).  If the people
running
the NAC are being generous when they set things up, they could decide
that
high level government could operate in 3 or 4 languages (English and
Spanish for sure, and maybe French and Portuguese).  Then the regional
governments could operate and provide services in the language of the
majority in their area (and probably English... no real reason for the
Argentinians to provide govt in French...).  I'd imagine that the
military
would operate with one language though - like NATO airforces do now -
everyone speaks English so that there are fewer mixups in command and
control....

Having said that, I heard a story once about a joint military exercise
in
the US that had Australian (I think), US, British, (and one other -
maybe
Israeli) troops all operating together.  They found that language was
still
a barrier, 'cause the Americans had a really hard time understanding the
Brits over the radio....  Same with the Brits and people speaking with
southern US accents...

>I wonder if there would be an oppression of language in the NAC. 
>With the absorbing of central and south America, the predominate
languages
>would be Spanish and Portuguese (by sheer numbers alone). Would the NAC
have
>declared an "official language" of English, or would it become a
>multi-lingual society? If an official language was declared, how
stringently
>would it be enforced. I can think of numerous times in history where
>conquered peoples were prohibited from using their native tongue.
>
>Related:
>What percent of the population of central and south America do you
think
>that the LLAR was able to get off Earth?
>

See the ongoing discussion of transportation capabilities.  I bet not
much
as a percentage of the total - few millions maybe, max.  

Adrian Johnson
ajohnson@idirect.com