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Just like the 'official' language of the U.S., UK and Australia is English. We, however, don't call our trucks 'lorries', spell 'color' with a 'u' or 'organization' with an 's.'
The differences between U.S. and UK English were enough to cause Scholastic to 'translate' the 'Harry Potter' books for American release. I would imagine that there are similar differences between German and Austrian 'German.'
If someone said we in the U.S. speak 'American' would that be wrong or just descriptive?
The USA doesn't have an official language....also all three nations you mentioned still speak english....
Would you have considered it okay if Obama had mentioned that Australians speak the Australian language????
The US has no official language, but that's a topic for another thread.
There is an Austrian dialect, but if you speak regular old German, you'll be fine.
If the worst thing that President Obama does is say Austrian is a language .. well golly gee willikers, that's it??? Did he assault the leader of their country by giving them a shoulder massage? Did he refer to them as "old Europe"? Did he do a soft shoe at the end of the speech?
Location: I currently exist only in a state of mind. one too complex for geographic location.
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no, I think the worst thing he did was spending a couple trillion in the first month.
Quote:
Originally Posted by domergurl
The US has no official language, but that's a topic for another thread.
There is an Austrian dialect, but if you speak regular old German, you'll be fine.
If the worst thing that President Obama does is say Austrian is a language .. well golly gee willikers, that's it??? Did he assault the leader of their country by giving them a shoulder massage? Did he refer to them as "old Europe"? Did he do a soft shoe at the end of the speech?
An Austrian term is not to be confused with official language of Austria. I thought TigerLily's attempt at quoting the Austrian dictionary (note: not "German dictionary") would have done the trick. But then...
The US has no official language, but that's a topic for another thread.
There is an Austrian dialect, but if you speak regular old German, you'll be fine.
If the worst thing that President Obama does is say Austrian is a language .. well golly gee willikers, that's it??? Did he assault the leader of their country by giving them a shoulder massage? Did he refer to them as "old Europe"? Did he do a soft shoe at the end of the speech?
domergurl it is no different than Spanish dialects. Spaniards speak their language just like the British speak the Queen's English and they laugh at how we speak it.
We hispanics laugh at how Mexicans talk, how Puerto Ricans can't pronounce their "R"s and they want to bash Obama over "Austrian"!
My friends who moved here from Mexico always refer to themselves as Mexican speakers ...
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