From: Usenet News Support (support@deathstar.prodigy.com)
Date: Wed Apr 28 2004 - 15:10:51 CDT
On Wed, 14 Apr 2004, Bruce Lilly wrote:
> Usenet News Support wrote:
>
> > Bear in mind that the root is Latin, not English. Unless someone suggests
> > using another dead language it actually avoids "my language is as good as
> > yours" thinking
>
> No, it in fact amounts to "linguistic fascism" for those whose languages
> are not derived from Latin, including all Middle Eastern languages, all
> Oriental languages, languages used by aboriginal people worldwide, African
> languages, Greek, Russian and other Eastern European languages, and
> languages used in the Indian subcontinent -- all told well in excess of
> 75% of the world's population. "Re is an abbreviation for the Latin" is
> a smokescreen.
No, unless you have an alternative dead language to suggest. The advantage
of Latin is that no one is speaking it, at least as a native language,
today. Therefore it avoids choosing one current language over another.
You might also consider that it is the most common of the abbreviations
supported by any client with widespread use. I am unaware of any which
doesn't support Re: if it supports anything, although other abbreviations
are supported as well.
This seems to be an example of "codify existing practice."
-- bill davidsen SBC/Prodigy Yorktown Heights NY data center Project Leader, USENET news http://newsgroups.news.prodigy.com Please send usenet-related mail to news-support@prodigy.net