Re: dialectal diversity in English

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> Although I am not fluent in Dutch, I
> have little trouble understanding most of those dialects (and I've only
> ever learned Standard Dutch), just like I have little problem understanding
> Flemish dialects, except the most divergent from "standard Flemish").
I'm betting, based on the situation in other dialect-rich countries, that
there is a whole continuum from village-local all the way up to local
pronunciation of the standard language, and the further to the left the
speaker is on this continuum, the less is understandable.

Typically local dialects are defined by the language behavior of older rural
males, who are most often the most conservative speakers.

> I find all this strange, because checking France I agree with their
> classification in this case, although they forgot Chleu, the Normand
> language of the North of Normandy,
Do you know the etymology of this name?  It looks interesting.

--
We call nothing profound                        jcowan@reutershealth.com
that is not wittily expressed.                  John Cowan
        --Northrop Frye (improved)              http://www.reutershealth.com

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