In Reply to: re: re: re: it pisses me off posted by MayoLite on June 23, 2007 at 10:33:28:

"Nationalism" = a belief in the innate righteousness and superiority of what one arbitrarily defines as "their own kind". History repeatedly demonstrates that once such a delusion takes hold then Inbreeding (as the definition of "ones own kind" narrows as it inevitably does) and peeople hating and eventually killing each other (when one brand of nationalism comes up against a rival brand which given that its based on arbitary definitions it inevitavly does) must surely follow.

Of course not all nationalism is so pernicious (at least at the outset) In its "milder forms" it is merly pathetic as in the example of lingustic xenophobia you refer to. Languages constantly devolop by borrow words and phrases from each other. Any attempt to prevent this is doomed to failure. Any language that really needs this form of "protection" doesnt deserve to survive.

"Phone company voice machines" dont magically develop an accent all by themselves. They play back recorded snippets of voice recorded by a human being. In any case if the subscriber really doesnt like the accent or some other aspect of their voicemail announcment the option of recording their own is always there but most people cant be bothered. Perhaps because they have better things to worry about and get "pissed off" over. Like for example those troops passing through Shannon en-route to the slaughter over the last of the worlds oil !