Final Word from Wednesday, November 14, 2007
English is so pervasive that native speakers have lost control of it. Who are they to tell Pavel Flosman that his Czech retail chain is doomed to fail if he insists on calling it Flop? Who are native speakers to tell ČSA that its low-cost unit, Click4Sky, doesn't make a lot of sense, unless it hopes to pique the interest of Rupert Murdoch? What about i-legalne.cz, a legitimate music-download site that gives the opposite impression in the anglicized global environment? It doesn't matter what native speakers think, because they're the minority and no longer set the rules. HN confirmed this in today's edition. It corrected several minor errors in an English test from Oct. 8 but left the biggest blooper. "This is not right moment to ask for my help," the text ran. A native speaker might say the same thing when asked to edit some Czenglish, except that he or she would surely violate local usage and insert a definite article.[Czech Republic Sky Channel Hospodářské noviny]