How English became the language of science

[Skybird]

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29543708

Bloody war. Would have been so much easier writing without it. :shifty:

:woot:

[Tango589]

Only for you, not for English people...:O:

:D

[Jimbuna]

Other than footbal (and not always) it should be par for the course for you by now Sky :O:

[Oberon]

It's funny really, once upon a time the language of science looked quite similar to the language that people run away from these days... :hmmm:

[Eichhörnchen]

I'm not getting involved in this; I fear I may shortly be in trouble with Schroeder over how German became the preferred language of English sitcoms...

[Oberon]

I'm not getting involved in this; I fear I may shortly be in trouble with Schroeder over how German became the preferred language of English sitcoms...

https://33.media.tumblr.com/4d0deeb50302f2ab6f76f3b041b673ad/tumblr_mr90rfwTDy1sy769zo9_400.gif

https://38.media.tumblr.com/54f82a0e6de98e5b442f17856aed7552/tumblr_mr90rfwTDy1sy769zo4_400.gif

[ikalugin]

It is more about American post Cold War dominance if anything.

[Catfish]

^ right ..

From Oberon's article:

"After World War One, Belgian, French and British scientists organised a boycott of scientists from Germany and Austria. They were blocked from conferences and weren't able to publish in Western European journals."

" ... In Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota there were many, many German speakers. World War One changed all that.
"German is criminalised in 23 states. You're not allowed to speak it in public, you're not allowed to use it in the radio, you're not allowed to teach it to a child under the age of 10 ..."

The law was officially changed in 1923, but most states went on .. and then there was WW2 ..


But the article is wrong in several points:
" ... So you can see how at a certain moments, certain words get formed, and the tendency was for Germans, in particular, to take French and English terms and translate them ..."

No you can't. German scientists often used latin and greek words, and translated those - not necessarily the english terms.
There was also a certain reluctance to use english, becasue the language is a bit inexact just of all when it comes to science.
And i think they were right, from my line of experience when talking to english-speaking people, just of all in technical and scientific terms it is sometimes hard to directly point out certain processes, or to describe how things work. But probably only for Germans or .. well, at least for me :D

[Eichhörnchen]

:88):O:Yeah, especially if it's me standing in front of you...:O::88)

[Aktungbby]

It is more about American post Cold War dominance if anything.

YEAH! PERFECT ENGLISH FROM A GOOD GERMAN BOY! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Relativity3_Walk_of_Ideas_Berlin.JPG:O:=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/86/Einstein_tongue.jpg/220px-Einstein_tongue.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Einstein_tongue.jpg) just thbbbn'!

[Catfish]

:88):O:Yeah, especially if it's me standing in front of you...:O::88)

:rotfl2:

Yeah but it's because of me speaking :haha: :up:

[Eichhörnchen]

No, your English is a heck of a lot better than my German (I might try a bit in a minute). The British are, in general, appallingly lazy about learning other languages: aber, es tut mir leid... Tschus!

[ikalugin]

I wonder if military science counts, as all major works on it exist only in Russian. (Slight troll, still true)

[Skybird]

I wonder if military science counts, as all major works on it exist only in Russian. (Slight troll, still true)
Which is no surprise since the way the Sovjets implemented military science as basis for their post-WWII doctrine was a unique Russian invention that in that academic understanding is not found anywhere else.

With Russian forces since longer time now being in a process of redesigning and modenrization and imporovement and with reported effects of them having won much greater flexibility and and command-and-control abilities, I wonder to what degree the cold war fundament of military science still is applied in their forces.

[ikalugin]

WW2 and pre WW2 as well actually, the best original work would be by Svechin I think.

The Soviet tradition is still very much applicable, even if it did deteriorate a lot after the breakdown of the USSR. What I do find sad is the apparent lack of academic research efforts by the officers (as well as the professional mil scientists in their institutions), the way they were conducted in the Soviet times.

P.s. Unfortunately a lot of the Soviet past is forgotten, for example current commanders tend to be ignorant of the late Soviet theoretical and practical developments of the network centric warfare and tend to just blindly follow foreign works even though Soviets were first to field an automated troop control/C3I system and recon strike/fire complexes.