Re:English is weirdly different from other languages
by TazeTSchnitzel on Wednesday May 31, 2017 @04:02PM
(#14455459)
There's also Scots (not to be confused with Scottish English or Scottish Gaelic) which, while mostly relegated to “dialect” status these days, was previously considered a separate language. Here's the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Scots: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Pages/Language.aspx?LangID=sco
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Re:English is weirdly different from other languages
by Houshalter on Wednesday May 31, 2017 @04:21PM
(#14455581)
They have their own wikipedia even! https://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Re:English is weirdly different from other languages
by mhermher on Wednesday May 31, 2017 @04:31PM
(#14455670)
If Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish are considered separate languages, or Serbian and Croatian, then I can't see how Scots is not a separate language from English. I guess a lot of it comes down to politics.
Re:English is weirdly different from other languages
by JBReefer on Wednesday May 31, 2017 @04:46PM
(#14455768)
"A language is a dialect with an army" is a pretty useful concept for distinguishing the recognized state
Re:English is weirdly different from other languages
by CWuestefeld on Wednesday May 31, 2017 @05:44PM
(#14456179)
Politics it is.
On the opposite side, consider the many "dialects" of Chinese: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, etc. Someone who only understands one of these will be pretty much entirely unable to understand the others. Yet we give the Chinese a nod and let them consider all these different languages to be just dialects.