If you're reading this in English

[undyingking]

Interesting post in languagelog about a bumper sticker saying "If you can read this, thank a teacher. And if you're reading it in English, thank a soldier."

I won't reiterate the discussion there¹ -- but I wondered if anyone had seen this sentiment expressed in the UK, where it would make a lot more sense as a proposition, in relation to WWII². Has anyone in the UK seen or heard of the teachers' message being added to / hijacked in this way?

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1 Except to say that I favour the "ill-thought-out generalized right-wing puffery" theory.
2 Of course one might argue that Battle of Britain aircrew, naval convoys, or Russians, were more to thank, but leave that for now.

Comments

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

But I could read before I met any teachers....

[zengineer.livejournal.com]

I always imagined that the Irish and Scottish spoke English due to invasions by English soldiers in the middle ages and that America and the Commonwealth spoke English due to Colonial soldiers displacing indigenous populations and enforcing European systems of government. A simplification of course and I don't think we would speak German if they had won WWII (they don't all speak English after all).

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

Nope, never seen it before now. It does seem to be a variant on the "If [x] hadn't done [y], you/we/they would all be speaking [z] by now." motif, which I have heard fairly often in different contexts.

I sometimes wonder what we'd have ended up speaking if Drake hadn't defeated the Spanish Armada, Nelson hadn't triumphed at Trafalgar (one might add Wellington winning at Waterloo to that as well, if only because it alliterates well), and if the Germans had won either of the World Wars.

I further wonder whether it would be at least as accurate to suggest that if Harold had beaten William in 1066, we might actually be speaking English right now, rather than the bizarre Franco-Norman/Saxon hybrid that we have evolved since then!

Not only that, but if the Islamic advance into Spain hadn't been checked, and arguably middle-eastern expansionism diverted by the Crusades and the Mongol Invasion, maybe we'd all be speaking Arabic. Unless the Roman Empire had hung on, in which case it'd be Latin of course... unless Hannibal had won the Second Punic War... then we'd (Heaven forfend!) be speaking Welsh!!!

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

Well, presuambly we would have been learning German as a second language rather than French, in the manner that Russian was the 2nd language in the Soviet bloc.

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

So far as I know there was no attempt made to impose German as an official language on the Vichy government, which I'd imagine would be a closer model for a post-defeat UK than the forced Germanization of Eastern Europe.

Apologies if this was covered in the thread you link to, I've not had the chance to have a look at that yet. Anyway, no, I've not seen anything like this in the UK!

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

Well, whomsoever we have to thank for it, it certainly isn't George Dubya, as this definitively proves (as if we needed further - if hilarious - evidence).

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Tattoo it on the vehicle-owner's forehead and release them into downtown Harare.