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Indeed. Legolas Send a noteboard - 26/01/2011 06:06:00 PM
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.

The cases of rivaling or in-fighting ethnic groups that speak exactly the same variant of a language, or nearly so, are quite rare - one of the few I can think of, ironically, would be in Northern Ireland.

Of course, cases like former Yugoslavia illustrate that the causality can run in the other direction too, with Serbian and Croatian slowly drifting further apart because of the political struggles between them, rather than the other way around.
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So the Irish government has basically imploded. Stephen - 23/01/2011 04:47:10 PM 1711 Views
I am now confused Camilla - 23/01/2011 05:34:31 PM 1072 Views
You won't be the only person Stephen - 23/01/2011 06:21:23 PM 978 Views
You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment? Legolas - 23/01/2011 06:27:05 PM 1099 Views
Re: You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment? Camilla - 23/01/2011 06:34:47 PM 1031 Views
I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood). Legolas - 23/01/2011 06:41:34 PM 1006 Views
Re: I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood). Camilla - 23/01/2011 06:43:41 PM 950 Views
Those protests were only violent by British standards. Tim - 23/01/2011 11:54:15 PM 1098 Views
Really? Camilla - 24/01/2011 12:03:38 AM 934 Views
But... Wibble - 24/01/2011 07:28:17 PM 993 Views
Re: But... Camilla - 24/01/2011 07:30:39 PM 1241 Views
What protests? Wibble - 24/01/2011 07:26:49 PM 1078 Views
Re: What protests? Camilla - 24/01/2011 07:28:40 PM 925 Views
Re: What protests? Nebhead - 25/01/2011 09:23:17 AM 1068 Views
There's a new objection Camilla - 25/01/2011 11:38:25 AM 988 Views
I didn't object... Nebhead - 25/01/2011 11:47:11 AM 878 Views
Re: I didn't object... Camilla - 25/01/2011 11:49:36 AM 842 Views
If you look at the bottom of that list... Nebhead - 25/01/2011 11:58:24 AM 930 Views
And Britain had to live with the Conservative Wilderness for 15 years before it could get there *NM* Roland00 - 24/01/2011 02:43:16 AM 508 Views
Should I start chiming in on Norwegian politics now that I'm here...? Joel - 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM 963 Views
Why not? Camilla - 24/01/2011 08:49:07 AM 1030 Views
'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing. Joel - 26/01/2011 01:55:13 AM 1050 Views
Re: 'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing. Camilla - 26/01/2011 08:42:04 AM 1073 Views
I misconstrued your sarcasm, sorry. Joel - 26/01/2011 10:23:40 AM 1226 Views
That's been a while coming, hasn't it? Cowen seems to be losing it. Legolas - 23/01/2011 05:48:30 PM 1003 Views
Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 06:27:27 PM 1071 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Legolas - 23/01/2011 06:33:26 PM 1023 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 07:19:03 PM 1119 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Legolas - 23/01/2011 07:57:05 PM 966 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 09:29:03 PM 1073 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Legolas - 23/01/2011 09:46:20 PM 1035 Views
I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one. Tim - 23/01/2011 11:45:34 PM 991 Views
Re: I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one. Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:53:12 PM 985 Views
The part that I find strange is... Tim - 23/01/2011 11:58:27 PM 965 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months. Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:45:39 PM 869 Views
I found out something else today which makes it even better. Tim - 24/01/2011 10:37:45 PM 1166 Views
I was reading your post and going "what about the Chiltern Hundreds"? Legolas - 24/01/2011 10:44:32 PM 985 Views
Today's news: it got better again! Tim - 26/01/2011 07:51:51 PM 1048 Views
Oh, alternatively we could elevate him to the House of Lords. Tim - 26/01/2011 11:08:44 PM 1004 Views
Awesome idea. Something like "Baron Adams of Londonderry", I'm thinking. *NM* Legolas - 27/01/2011 07:54:26 PM 487 Views
We made his arch-rival a Lord, after all, so it would only be fair. Tim - 28/01/2011 08:26:15 AM 946 Views
"This is the voice of a life peer" Michael - 28/01/2011 02:18:04 PM 1063 Views
Here you go Elaine - 25/01/2011 12:55:33 PM 1099 Views
That's the site I found too. Tim - 25/01/2011 01:25:56 PM 934 Views
Right. Elaine - 25/01/2011 01:42:49 PM 1170 Views
well, the only interesting thing in swedish politics is a wikileaks document and the reactions... jh - 23/01/2011 06:21:00 PM 1058 Views
That's interesting Stephen - 23/01/2011 06:32:05 PM 1019 Views
What is inappropriate about trying to keep out barbaric unskilled people? Tom - 23/01/2011 10:59:53 PM 1030 Views
The inappropriateness is the generalisation in the claim Camilla - 23/01/2011 11:16:52 PM 994 Views
Generalizations are inappropriate when they are disproven by statistics, and appropriate when proven Tom - 24/01/2011 07:33:14 PM 949 Views
I've looked into the statistics a bit more. Tom - 24/01/2011 09:11:52 PM 966 Views
I take it you're talking about the Middle East in its most narrow sense here. Legolas - 24/01/2011 09:56:22 PM 996 Views
... the fact that they are asylum seekers, and their skill certainly shouldn't matter in that case. jh - 24/01/2011 07:08:14 PM 888 Views
Schweden schafft sich ab, eh? Tom - 24/01/2011 07:31:33 PM 1157 Views
Not to mention... ßelals Girl - 26/01/2011 07:55:26 PM 884 Views
ßelals Girl - 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM 1000 Views
Hopefully they'll stop using Irish officially as a way to cut down on unnecessary costs. Tom - 23/01/2011 10:57:08 PM 944 Views
I'd support that Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:26:20 PM 1026 Views
Ironically, if you de-officialised Irish you could get EU money to help preserve it. Tim - 23/01/2011 11:48:14 PM 920 Views
I never realised that Stephen - 23/01/2011 11:54:43 PM 946 Views
But why, why? Tom - 24/01/2011 08:35:43 PM 905 Views
Because it's the only thing justifying their insistence they're not British? Legolas - 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM 964 Views
But all language learning should be purely voluntary (after what parents teach their children). Tom - 25/01/2011 03:05:28 AM 940 Views
What, so you don't think students in high school should be taught foreign languages? Legolas - 25/01/2011 06:34:21 PM 968 Views
Irish is the mother tongue of about 7,000-15,000 people at most. Tom - 26/01/2011 05:04:00 AM 999 Views
Wikipedia says it's more like 40k-80k. Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:41:41 PM 1368 Views
And Elaine, Stephen, or any other Irish people here: do feel free to comment. *NM* Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM 488 Views
Inflated statistics from what I've read. Tom - 26/01/2011 09:45:51 PM 909 Views
They might be, indeed. Elaine - 27/01/2011 01:08:09 PM 1152 Views
More to the point, are YOU interested in learning Irish? Tom - 26/01/2011 05:15:18 AM 913 Views
Calling Ireland the new Sodom and Gomorrah, are you? Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM 1056 Views
I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis. Tom - 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM 1010 Views
Re: I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis. Legolas - 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM 891 Views
Presumably because they agree with J.R.R. Tolkien and Tómas Sæmundsson about language's importance. Tim - 24/01/2011 10:16:05 PM 1054 Views
So Australians and New Zealanders are really English then? Austrians are just Germans? Tom - 25/01/2011 03:01:14 AM 1007 Views
I never said I agreed . Tim - 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM 977 Views
I would suggest that a distinct dialect does the job just as well majander - 25/01/2011 02:23:59 PM 1005 Views
That's a very good point. Tom - 26/01/2011 05:06:32 AM 978 Views
Indeed. Legolas - 26/01/2011 06:06:00 PM 1035 Views
The thing is, people who feel really strongly about that usually insist it's a separate language. Tim - 28/01/2011 04:20:57 PM 861 Views
It's really more about having a unique silly costume to wear at Miss Universe pageants. Tom - 26/01/2011 05:09:10 AM 849 Views
You're confusing what we sell to gullible American tourists with what we actually value . *NM* Tim - 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM 433 Views
What the hell happened to the Celtic Tiger Country? *NM* Blaine - 24/01/2011 05:47:12 AM 562 Views
Thrown away on bling and tat, unfortunately. Elaine - 24/01/2011 01:01:27 PM 881 Views
The Celtic Tiger is dead, Ireland had a GDP contraction of 14% in the last two years. Roland00 - 24/01/2011 01:47:06 PM 966 Views
It's still there, but it aimed a bit too high and got a bit scorched. Legolas - 24/01/2011 10:07:36 PM 853 Views
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