*alan* wrote:
> <bertvaux@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:1192891137.795547.3920@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Dear linguists and other lovers of the English language:
>>
>> My new online survey of world English varieties is now available
>> online at
>> http://www.ling.cam.ac.uk/survey/.
> Are you at all concerned that, although you appear to be getting a
> rather broad regional response, you are nevertheless relying on the
> participation of a rather narrowly defined socio-economic group (i.e.
> on-line computer users who either frequent newsgroups or have been
> referred to your survey by those who do frequent newsgroups)? I would
> think that such a narrowly defined group of respondents could not
> necessarily be relied upon to provide an accurate representation of
> the regions in which they may have formed their speech habits.
In fact the questionnaire did not enquire as to where one learn one's
language, just the current whereabouts, which was rather silly of it
IMO. I live in France and have done for a fair bit more than half my
life, but that isn't where I learnt my English.
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