NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2010 Dec 3, 20:44 -0800
Peter Fogg, in the "slope" thread you wrote:
"We all benefit from their contributions in our native tongue, but why should I, or anyone else, not attempt to return that favour occasionally?"
Oh come on, Peter. You know better than that. An occasional "social" comment in French or other languages does no harm and may well make someone feel welcome. Sincerely commendable. But if you make an entire post in French, that's excluding the majority of NavList readers. DO NOT do it. If you wish to carry on a private conversation with Antoine in French, feel free --by private email. Posts to NavList should otherwise be in English, mathematics, and of course "navigator argot".
And what is an "argot"? Well, it's a technical or exclusive type of slang (the English language borrowed the word from French, by the way), or, as quoted on the Wikipedia page, an argot is "the deliberately hermetic language of a small knowledge clique... a super-specialized geek cult language that has no traction in the real world." THAT type of exclusionary language is inescapable in NavList posts.
-FER
PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argot
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