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
1792 Views
I am now confused
- 23/01/2011 05:34:31 PM
1150 Views
You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment?
- 23/01/2011 06:27:05 PM
1183 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
1126 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
1078 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
1039 Views
Those protests were only violent by British standards.
- 23/01/2011 11:54:15 PM
1214 Views
What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:26:49 PM
1152 Views
Re: What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:28:40 PM
1013 Views
Re: What protests?
- 25/01/2011 09:23:17 AM
1150 Views
There's a new objection
- 25/01/2011 11:38:25 AM
1063 Views
I didn't object...
- 25/01/2011 11:47:11 AM
957 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
543 Views
Should I start chiming in on Norwegian politics now that I'm here...? 
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
1046 Views
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
1046 Views
Why not?
- 24/01/2011 08:49:07 AM
1108 Views
'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing.
- 26/01/2011 01:55:13 AM
1139 Views
That's been a while coming, hasn't it? Cowen seems to be losing it.
- 23/01/2011 05:48:30 PM
1089 Views
Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:27:27 PM
1153 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:33:26 PM
1092 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:19:03 PM
1203 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:57:05 PM
1045 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:29:03 PM
1159 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:46:20 PM
1118 Views
I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one.
- 23/01/2011 11:45:34 PM
1073 Views
I found out something else today which makes it even better.
- 24/01/2011 10:37:45 PM
1269 Views
I was reading your post and going "what about the Chiltern Hundreds"?
- 24/01/2011 10:44:32 PM
1058 Views
Oh, alternatively we could elevate him to the House of Lords.
- 26/01/2011 11:08:44 PM
1091 Views
Awesome idea. Something like "Baron Adams of Londonderry", I'm thinking. *NM*
- 27/01/2011 07:54:26 PM
527 Views
We made his arch-rival a Lord, after all, so it would only be fair.
- 28/01/2011 08:26:15 AM
1026 Views
Here you go
- 25/01/2011 12:55:33 PM
1190 Views
well, the only interesting thing in swedish politics is a wikileaks document and the reactions...
- 23/01/2011 06:21:00 PM
1128 Views
What is inappropriate about trying to keep out barbaric unskilled people?
- 23/01/2011 10:59:53 PM
1101 Views
- 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM
1078 Views
The inappropriateness is the generalisation in the claim
- 23/01/2011 11:16:52 PM
1097 Views
Generalizations are inappropriate when they are disproven by statistics, and appropriate when proven
- 24/01/2011 07:33:14 PM
1034 Views
I've looked into the statistics a bit more.
- 24/01/2011 09:11:52 PM
1042 Views
I take it you're talking about the Middle East in its most narrow sense here.
- 24/01/2011 09:56:22 PM
1086 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
970 Views
- 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM
1078 Views
Hopefully they'll stop using Irish officially as a way to cut down on unnecessary costs.
- 23/01/2011 10:57:08 PM
1040 Views
I'd support that
- 23/01/2011 11:26:20 PM
1101 Views
Ironically, if you de-officialised Irish you could get EU money to help preserve it.
- 23/01/2011 11:48:14 PM
1003 Views
But why, why?
- 24/01/2011 08:35:43 PM
980 Views
Because it's the only thing justifying their insistence they're not British?
- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
1048 Views
- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
1048 Views
But all language learning should be purely voluntary (after what parents teach their children).
- 25/01/2011 03:05:28 AM
1025 Views
What, so you don't think students in high school should be taught foreign languages?
- 25/01/2011 06:34:21 PM
1053 Views
Irish is the mother tongue of about 7,000-15,000 people at most.
- 26/01/2011 05:04:00 AM
1080 Views
Wikipedia says it's more like 40k-80k.
- 26/01/2011 06:41:41 PM
1450 Views
And Elaine, Stephen, or any other Irish people here: do feel free to comment. *NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
532 Views
*NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
532 Views
More to the point, are YOU interested in learning Irish?
- 26/01/2011 05:15:18 AM
991 Views
Calling Ireland the new Sodom and Gomorrah, are you?
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
1140 Views
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
1140 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
1087 Views
- 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM
1087 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
975 Views
- 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM
975 Views
Presumably because they agree with J.R.R. Tolkien and Tómas Sæmundsson about language's importance.
- 24/01/2011 10:16:05 PM
1132 Views
So Australians and New Zealanders are really English then? Austrians are just Germans?
- 25/01/2011 03:01:14 AM
1087 Views
I never said I agreed 
.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
1054 Views
.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
1054 Views
I would suggest that a distinct dialect does the job just as well
- 25/01/2011 02:23:59 PM
1100 Views
That's a very good point.
- 26/01/2011 05:06:32 AM
1071 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
946 Views
It's really more about having a unique silly costume to wear at Miss Universe pageants.
- 26/01/2011 05:09:10 AM
927 Views
You're confusing what we sell to gullible American tourists with what we actually value . *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
478 Views
. *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
478 Views
What the hell happened to the Celtic Tiger Country? *NM*
- 24/01/2011 05:47:12 AM
602 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
1049 Views
It's still there, but it aimed a bit too high and got a bit scorched.
- 24/01/2011 10:07:36 PM
935 Views