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From:  "Angus B. Grieve-Smith"
Date:  Sun Aug 22, 1999  1:30 pm
Subject:  Re: Acronyms - A suggestion


On Sat, 21 Aug 1999, Bill Reese wrote:

> A mountain blocking the transfer of languages is a much more defining
> characteristic than an arbitrary political boundary such as a country.

Now you're making me argue against myself! What you say is true
in general, but less true of signed languages, which are influenced by
governments that can establish or shut down schools for the Deaf. The
fact that ASL and LSM split from Old LSF is more a result of their use in
different schools for the Deaf, and of the national boundary, than of a
natural boundary like the Rio Grande, which is crossed by thousands every
day.

--
Angus B. Grieve-Smith
Linguistics Department
The University of New Mexico


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