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From: rharmsen@knoware.nl (Ruud Harmsen)
Subject: Re: Dialect and language
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Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1995 06:47:52 GMT
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In article <o.m.selberg-1302951051560001@hfmac15.uio.no> o.m.selberg@easteur-orient.uio.no (Ole Michael Selberg) writes:
>> 
>> In our modern time I would suggest another criterion, It is not a
>> linguistic one, but a practical ot operational one. I think one 
>> might say that if lang./dial. A is used in a TV program (or in a film)
>> before an audience of people speaking lang./dial B, then A and B
>> are two languages when A is translated (by subtitles or dubbing),
>> and two dialects when they are not.
Well, not quite. Some Dutch dialects (or what many people consider that) are 
completely incomprehensible to me (and subtitled), yet I sometimes see 
subtitles on Dutch TV of dialects (or just slightly differing pronounciation) 
that _I_ can understand perfectly well, but ARE subtitled. And some indeed 
need them.

Another example: Afrikaans and Dutch I think are two languages (nearly every 
single word is different), but they ARE mutually intelligible. If you don't 
believe it, there is a mailing list, where people from South-Afrika, 
The Netherlands and Belgium have discussions, mostly in Afrikaans, but the 
Belgians and Dutch can take part in Dutch, and the discussion simply continues 
bilingually, without anyone complaining about difficulties in understanding.

>When groups of people start killing each other, in spite of the fact that
>their forms of speech are mutually intelligible, the contention that they
>speak different languages should be taken seriously.
That's interesting. It can also prove that languages difference is NOT a 
reason for war, despite of what Dr.Zamenhof believed. Interestingly, the two 
in Rwanda I heard also have a common language.
