Subject: Re: PART TWO: winning industrial-use of lisp: Re: Norvig's latest paper on Lisp From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 20:32:59 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3233853179068713@naggum.net> * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen | That's true in the dialect that Erik speaks (and writes). In standard | Norwegian (both the majority "bokmål" standard and the minority "nynorsk" | standard), there are three genders. My "dialect" is the standard upon which the bastardized Bokmål is based. Back in 1929, Riksmål was renamed Bokmål and perverted by nynorsk freaks, in the brutal murder of decent language in Norwegian called Samnorsk, which was abandoned more than 50 years ago, having wrought havoc with both languages, Riksmål survived through the sheer will-power of educated authors who formed a society for the preservation of Norwegian and published the best dictionary of Norwegian in the past 150 years, like the Oxford English Dictionary or Merriam-Webster's Unabridged. Nynorsk is a concoction of dialects and allows a very wide range of forms. Bokmål is also a wide range of forms, such that radical Bokmål is very close to moderate Nynorsk. Radical Nynorsk is quite simply unintelligible. Moderate Bokmåls reasonably close to Riksmål. Some Norwegians, obsessed with eradicting good taste and class distinctions, claim that Riksmål is also a "dialect" -- but Riksmål is the _only_ "dialect" in Norway that you cannot write in official government communication, which is enough reason to do it, but the status as "dialect" is contradicted by the official government policy of accepting _all_ dialects equally. Except well-written, real Norwegian. -- Guide to non-spammers: If you want to send me a business proposal, please be specific and do not put "business proposal" in the Subject header. If it is urgent, do not use the word "urgent". If you need an immediate answer, give me a reason, do not shout "for your immediate attention". Thank you.