Should German count as only one language?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Aren't all dialects difficult to understand when you're not used to them?

By definition, yeah. Not always just the words either, although I suppose what makes German especially tricky in this regard is the fact that so many dialect words have survived. Mind you, see Alan Garner on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Norwegian and Swedish have different spellings, but they're pretty close to one another. I'm sure verbally they sound basically the same. Danish is definitely different though. Would you speak Swedish if you visited another Nordic country or just English?

Of course by mentioning 'Norwegian' in the context of a dialect thread... ah...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

On the other hand, sometimes it seems a bit arrogant, as if I was one of those continental European idiots who go abroad without knowing English and expect everyone to know French/Italian/Russian etc.

There's always the classic British idiot abroad method as well: SPEAK ENG-LISH LOUD-LY AND SLOW-LY.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

'Brussels - Charleroi' is great. Like having... oh... how about 'Cardiff - Rhondda', except that you could never build an airport up there. 'Leeds - Barnsley', perhaps?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Is Charleroi really that far from Brussels? It's the same distance as Baltimore Airport is from Washington.

It's the culture shock that's funnier than the distance.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Not

A bit extreme as an example, as that's not even an issue of dialects. But even in England (and other English speaking areas) the idea that there is a correct form of English and that dialects were corruptions of something pure was a major part of the education system until quite recently. It's not uncommon to find people (usually over fifty) who switch their accents and grammar when talking to someone in a formal setting. And, obviously, it hasn't totally disappeared.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

You can rework the above post for just about anywhere in England.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

An article on the influence of EastEnders on Glaswegian English? I do hope that the people who did that did not receive any funding to do so...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Why not?

Waste of money that could have been spent on worthwhile projects. Even in the same subject area. The answer was obviously going to be 'no', and the sort of 'no' that would not exactly elucidate...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

That's easy to say in hindsight, and I disagree.

No, it's obvious to anyone who knows anything about Glasgow, and to anyone who (alas) has at least a passing familiarity with a dreadful soap (what my Grandad would have called ket) set in a mythical Bangladeshi-free East End (a soap that is, by the way, not generally noted for its accurate rendition of current or former working class London dialects).

In any case, who said we were talking about accents?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

That's easy to say in hindsight, and I disagree.

No, it's obvious to anyone who knows anything about Glasgow, and to anyone who (alas) has at least a passing familiarity with a dreadful soap (what my Grandad would have called ket) set in a mythical Bangladeshi-free East End (a soap that is, by the way, not generally noted for its accurate rendition of current or former working class London dialects).

In any case, who said we were talking about accents?

Of course the main thing, the main thing, would be the decline of traditional communities in a wider sense, obviously. Mass media played its part in that process though.