2006-08-10 - 7:30 a.m. What is an accent, exactly? If I say "Chopin" and pronounce it "Show-pan," you'll get who I'm talking about. If I pronounce it in a perfect French accent, you'll still know who I'm talking about, but depending on your state of mind, you will find me pretentious, captivatingly cosmopolitan, or some other cocktail of prejudice, irritation, admiration, or neutrality. It's a short hop from there (pre-coffee) to "Why don't we have a universal language and pronunciation system, now that we are a global village? And whatever happened to Esperanto?!" Obviously, it would take a long time to get this rolled out, but let's say we approached it like the space program, failure not an option, and give it about 25-50 years to implement? I'm dreamin' of course, but the thought of it made me happy. thoughts? (37 comments so far) previous - next blog archive contact