It would actually account for quite a lot of distinctions in the situations I mentioned previously. Swiss German is radically different from High German, and Austrian German, while closer, still has a lot of dialectical differences. Australian English is different from American English. Argentinian Spanish is different from the Spanish of Spain and both are different from Mexican Spanish.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
So the Irish government has basically imploded.
- 23/01/2011 04:47:10 PM
1654 Views
I am now confused
- 23/01/2011 05:34:31 PM
1026 Views
You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment?
- 23/01/2011 06:27:05 PM
1057 Views
Re: You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment?
- 23/01/2011 06:34:47 PM
988 Views
I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood).
- 23/01/2011 06:41:34 PM
967 Views
Re: I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood).
- 23/01/2011 06:43:41 PM
906 Views
Those protests were only violent by British standards.
- 23/01/2011 11:54:15 PM
1019 Views
What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:26:49 PM
1037 Views
Re: What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:28:40 PM
882 Views
Re: What protests?
- 25/01/2011 09:23:17 AM
1020 Views
There's a new objection
- 25/01/2011 11:38:25 AM
945 Views
I didn't object...
- 25/01/2011 11:47:11 AM
833 Views
And Britain had to live with the Conservative Wilderness for 15 years before it could get there *NM*
- 24/01/2011 02:43:16 AM
484 Views
Should I start chiming in on Norwegian politics now that I'm here...? 
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
922 Views
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
922 Views
Why not?
- 24/01/2011 08:49:07 AM
981 Views
'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing.
- 26/01/2011 01:55:13 AM
1000 Views
That's been a while coming, hasn't it? Cowen seems to be losing it.
- 23/01/2011 05:48:30 PM
956 Views
Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:27:27 PM
1027 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:33:26 PM
967 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:19:03 PM
1072 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:57:05 PM
920 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:29:03 PM
1030 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:46:20 PM
979 Views
I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one.
- 23/01/2011 11:45:34 PM
941 Views
I found out something else today which makes it even better.
- 24/01/2011 10:37:45 PM
1108 Views
I was reading your post and going "what about the Chiltern Hundreds"?
- 24/01/2011 10:44:32 PM
937 Views
Oh, alternatively we could elevate him to the House of Lords.
- 26/01/2011 11:08:44 PM
954 Views
Awesome idea. Something like "Baron Adams of Londonderry", I'm thinking. *NM*
- 27/01/2011 07:54:26 PM
467 Views
We made his arch-rival a Lord, after all, so it would only be fair.
- 28/01/2011 08:26:15 AM
899 Views
Here you go
- 25/01/2011 12:55:33 PM
1049 Views
well, the only interesting thing in swedish politics is a wikileaks document and the reactions...
- 23/01/2011 06:21:00 PM
1008 Views
What is inappropriate about trying to keep out barbaric unskilled people?
- 23/01/2011 10:59:53 PM
982 Views
- 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM
963 Views
The inappropriateness is the generalisation in the claim
- 23/01/2011 11:16:52 PM
946 Views
Generalizations are inappropriate when they are disproven by statistics, and appropriate when proven
- 24/01/2011 07:33:14 PM
905 Views
I've looked into the statistics a bit more.
- 24/01/2011 09:11:52 PM
924 Views
I take it you're talking about the Middle East in its most narrow sense here.
- 24/01/2011 09:56:22 PM
956 Views
... the fact that they are asylum seekers, and their skill certainly shouldn't matter in that case.
- 24/01/2011 07:08:14 PM
848 Views
- 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM
963 Views
Hopefully they'll stop using Irish officially as a way to cut down on unnecessary costs.
- 23/01/2011 10:57:08 PM
903 Views
I'd support that
- 23/01/2011 11:26:20 PM
973 Views
Ironically, if you de-officialised Irish you could get EU money to help preserve it.
- 23/01/2011 11:48:14 PM
874 Views
But why, why?
- 24/01/2011 08:35:43 PM
864 Views
Because it's the only thing justifying their insistence they're not British?
- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
918 Views
- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
918 Views
But all language learning should be purely voluntary (after what parents teach their children).
- 25/01/2011 03:05:28 AM
893 Views
What, so you don't think students in high school should be taught foreign languages?
- 25/01/2011 06:34:21 PM
912 Views
Irish is the mother tongue of about 7,000-15,000 people at most.
- 26/01/2011 05:04:00 AM
929 Views
Wikipedia says it's more like 40k-80k.
- 26/01/2011 06:41:41 PM
1314 Views
And Elaine, Stephen, or any other Irish people here: do feel free to comment. *NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
465 Views
*NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
465 Views
More to the point, are YOU interested in learning Irish?
- 26/01/2011 05:15:18 AM
856 Views
Calling Ireland the new Sodom and Gomorrah, are you?
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
1002 Views
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
1002 Views
I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis. 
- 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM
969 Views
- 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM
969 Views
Re: I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis.
- 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM
855 Views
- 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM
855 Views
Presumably because they agree with J.R.R. Tolkien and Tómas Sæmundsson about language's importance.
- 24/01/2011 10:16:05 PM
1012 Views
So Australians and New Zealanders are really English then? Austrians are just Germans?
- 25/01/2011 03:01:14 AM
961 Views
I never said I agreed 
.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
934 Views
.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
934 Views
I would suggest that a distinct dialect does the job just as well
- 25/01/2011 02:23:59 PM
964 Views
That's a very good point.
- 26/01/2011 05:06:32 AM
934 Views
The thing is, people who feel really strongly about that usually insist it's a separate language.
- 28/01/2011 04:20:57 PM
823 Views
It's really more about having a unique silly costume to wear at Miss Universe pageants.
- 26/01/2011 05:09:10 AM
805 Views
You're confusing what we sell to gullible American tourists with what we actually value . *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
413 Views
. *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
413 Views
What the hell happened to the Celtic Tiger Country? *NM*
- 24/01/2011 05:47:12 AM
536 Views
The Celtic Tiger is dead, Ireland had a GDP contraction of 14% in the last two years.
- 24/01/2011 01:47:06 PM
922 Views
It's still there, but it aimed a bit too high and got a bit scorched.
- 24/01/2011 10:07:36 PM
811 Views