I generally moan about Quora and it's habit of deleting my answers as spam - still 100% success rate in overturning them since I bothered trying, but anyway, nothing to do with this.
This one is total silliness. I've given out about 1,600 answers apparently. They usually just disappear into the wilderness, few people see them, few people comment on my comments, few people upvote them and I seem to have 65 followers - a lot less than this blog.
But for some reason things can take off. I answered the following question:
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-England-the-only-country-in-the-English-speaking-world-that-does-not-have-a-native-language-other-than-English-NZ-has-M%C4%81ori-the-US-and-Canada-have-various-native-languages-even-Scotland-Wales-Ireland/answer/Rob-Young-152?__nsrc__=4&__snid3__=55054488262
'Why is England the only country in the English-speaking world that does not have a native language other than English? NZ has Māori; the US and Canada have various native languages; even Scotland/Wales/Ireland have Gaelic, Welsh and Irish languages?'
My answer was:
'Sorry, you’re mistaken. England has at least two native languages. English is one, and in fact England is the only country that has English as it’s NATIVE language. For example, in New Zealand English is not a native language - it is a foreign import! The second native language in England? Cornish! OK, only a couple of thousand people speak it, but it’s still an English native language!'
Nothing much to it, just a simple throwaway answer, few minutes to think about and write.
To date, it has 806,000 views (2/3s of my total views over 1,600 answers!), nearly 3,000 upvotes, plus attracted 567 further comments...
I mean, what is about this one totally nothing of an answer that attracts that kind of attention? I am at a total, complete loss!
Update: sometime today it passed the million views mark! (17/7/23)
Interesting point. Arguably some Cornish language speakers and nationalists would not accept Kernow or Cornwall as being part of England but as an occupied nation. I used to see the red English rose on tourist information signs used to be routinely sprayed out and replaced with the white Piran cross on a black background.
ReplyDeleteThe other comments run through a gamut that included that point, plus talking about regional accents, plus sign language, plus lots of people who talked about Welsh - etc, etc! Most comments kept coming back to points already made or discussed. To be honest, I stopped looking at them ages ago.
DeleteI would have thought the answer to the original question is....there is a clue in the name of the country....England = English...!
ReplyDeleteIs there a Manx language and is the Isle of Man part of England.....?
Why so much reaction to this small post...? I guess because language defines nationality to a great extent, and many people are quite sensitive on the subject, particularly the English ( as opposed to the British) in my opinion.
I must admit, I find any claims to independent Cornwall a bit ridiculous in this day and age....is there even a genuine Cornish language that exits as it was three or four hundred years ago....or has it just been reconstituted by a few enthusiasts in the last fifty to one hundred years???
It's Quora. Never look for common sense on Quora. As for all the possible reasonable and unreasonable comments that could be made - most of them probably have been mentioned in the comments. With the number of comments, I doubt I would be able think of any others.
Deleteand here I thought English was a foreign language which was imported to the British Isles.......
ReplyDeleteI've come across a lot of Americans who seriously believed that English was originally American. They are honestly puzzled at why everyone calls it English!
ReplyDeleteOh dear.........
DeletePrecisely.
Delete