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Glossary entry

German term or phrase:

Bevölkerungsschicht

English translation:

stratum / part of the population

Added to glossary by Craig Meulen
Apr 17, 2008 21:39
16 yrs ago
German term

Bevölkerungsschicht

German to English Social Sciences Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc.
From an online answer to the question of why English is the "world language":

"Weil die größte Bevolkerungsschicht englisch spricht."

I can't quite figure out the meaning of "Bevolkerungsschicht." Thanks in advance!
Proposed translations (English)
1 +4 part of the population
Change log

Apr 17, 2008 22:20: Johanna Timm, PhD changed "Term asked" from "Bevolkerungsschicht " to "Bevölkerungsschicht " , "Field" from "Other" to "Social Sciences"

Apr 18, 2008 12:13: Steffen Walter changed "Field (specific)" from "Linguistics" to "Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc."

Apr 21, 2008 16:44: Craig Meulen Created KOG entry

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): Jim Tucker (X)

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Discussion

Nicholas Krivenko Apr 18, 2008:
I would say that this has quite a lot to do with the ease basic English can be learned and, of course, thanks to Hollywood. In any case, "Bevölkerungsschicht" is plain wrong.
BrettMN (asker) Apr 18, 2008:
That's circular logic then. The question already begins with the premise that English is the "world language" (which implies, accurately, that it's spoken as a second language throughout the world by more people than any other second language); the only question is why this is so. So the person answering the question at that site is pretty much saying, "It's the world language because it's the world language."
Colin Rowe Apr 18, 2008:
Some would even go so far as to suggest that English is spoken in USA, but... (only kidding!). ;-)
Colin Rowe Apr 18, 2008:
Not necessarily factually incorrect. Chinese may have the largest number of native speakers, but English has far more speakers of English as a second (sometimes even official) language, e.g. hundreds of millions in India.
Erika Berrai-Flynn Apr 18, 2008:
Hier behauptet das auch einer mit der "Bevölkerungsschicht". http://www.gutefrage.net/frage/wieso-ist-englisch-die-weltsp...
Dazu fällt mir nur das Buch "Generation doof" ein.
BrettMN (asker) Apr 17, 2008:
I think Craig is right, the answerer to this question isn't very smart.

The question really was (in German) "Why is English the 'world language'"?

This person's answer is factually incorrect (hello, heard of Chinese?) :-), but now I at least get it linguistically.

Thank you.

Proposed translations

+4
27 mins
Selected

part of the population

I mean, the answer is complete nonsense, isn't it? Or am I missing something? What 'layer/stratum/part/class' of which 'population' is the largest and why does this make English the _world_ language?

P.S. That should be ö not o in your term.
Note from asker:
Colin, the person using this term on that site is incorrect, but my question was about the meaning of the term, not whether or not it was being used in a factual sense in this instance.
Peer comment(s):
agree Nicole Schnell : Or: the majority of the population. I absolutely agree that "Bevölkerungsschicht" is nonsense.
1 hr
agree Armorel Young : with Nicole - it just means the majority
12 hrs
agree Colin Rowe : Agree, but caution to those advocating "majority". There may be more speakers of English (as a first or second language) than any other language, but without necessarily actually constituting the majority of the population.
13 hrs
agree Nicholas Krivenko
17 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
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