languages

Maybe you're confusing the name with booksmal, the 'official' norwegian spelling/language ? Anyway,

Standard German (Hochdeutsch) is defined as the language to be used in official (state) documents. The spepelling of this language is defined to be the standard spelling to be uese in any official corospodence (Not for the citicen, but to be used by the officer). All school education is using this language in all classes. TV and Radio programs are made in Standard German ... so society is converting - Well, the reasons are maybe logical and understandable, just I dislike them at all. As some of you may know, Germany had several mor or less succesfull confrontations with France, just, do you know what language the German Officers had to use for conferences and to clear orders ? German ? Wrong, even in the successfull 1870/71 war the language of the German commanders was french - otherwise a Leutnant from lets say Bavaria and one from Hanover would had a hard time to understand each other. Althrough all part of the German language family, close members, the difference is way deeper than lets say between American, Australien or English English. Maybe a bit like the Ebony thing. Or to use known languages, in the worst case (Bavarian vs. Platt) like between todays English and Dutch. Anyway, going back to your question: it's a soft force of standardisation rather a brute force today - it has been different in the past. Gruss H. BTW: Just curious - almost nobody is going on my remarks about C :) -- VCF Europa am 29./30. April 2000 in Muenchen http://www.vintage.org/vcfe http://www.homecomputer.de/vcfe