Sonic Youth Gossip - View Single Post

!@#$%! · 04.08.2006, 08:58 AM

we need more beer

---

it's more of a creole than a dialect.

see, what i was trying to illustrate with my examples from spanish colonial times, is that the definitions of "language" and "dialect" are not so much scientifically based as they are political.

how come we don't say that english is a dialect of german?
politics
how come we don't say italian, spanish, french and romanian are dialects of latin?
politics! the rise of the nation-state...
how come we don't recognize north-african, syrian and saudi arab as different languages?
politics!!
this is a huge debate among linguists... the categories are not so clear-cut

sure you don't understand polish because it's a slavic language, but say if hitler had won ww2, germans could be making fun of you for your "funny german" (yes i exaggerate, but only to make a point). languages and dialects are differentiated more for political than linguistic reasons is my point... if not more at least 50-50...

04.08.2006, 08:58 AM	#49
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,683	we need more beer --- it's more of a creole than a dialect. see, what i was trying to illustrate with my examples from spanish colonial times, is that the definitions of "language" and "dialect" are not so much scientifically based as they are political. how come we don't say that english is a dialect of german? politics how come we don't say italian, spanish, french and romanian are dialects of latin? politics! the rise of the nation-state... how come we don't recognize north-african, syrian and saudi arab as different languages? politics!! this is a huge debate among linguists... the categories are not so clear-cut sure you don't understand polish because it's a slavic language, but say if hitler had won ww2, germans could be making fun of you for your "funny german" (yes i exaggerate, but only to make a point). languages and dialects are differentiated more for political than linguistic reasons is my point... if not more at least 50-50...
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|