Re: dialectal diversity in English

I know the difference between gaelic (learned a bit once) and english,
and I'm talking about a dialect of english not gaelic. Its possible that
they could be bilingual and that that could make their english even more
difficult to understand but I am not getting gaelic and english
confused. And I do not mean african creoles either.

>Chris Bates scripsit:
>
>
>>I don't think that's a perfect definition...
>>
>>
>
>The whole point is that there is no such thing as a perfect definition,
>only a suitable definition for a given purpose.  In the case of the
>Ethnologue, the purpose is the potential for separate development of
>the language as a medium of literature, education, technology, and
>all the other things that languages can be used for.
>
>
>
>>I cannot understand many
>>dialects of English, but that doesn't make them separate languages (have
>>you ever heard some of the northern scottish dialects?
>>
>>
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>In Scotland there are three languages, Scots, English (mostly with a
>Scots accent), and of course Scottish Gaelic.  I suspect that what
>you are talking about is Scots.
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>
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>>Or many of the
>>african ones... they sound like different languages to me unless the
>>speakers are trying really hard to speak english which is closer to the
>>standard).
>>
>>
>
>These are probably creoles.
>
>--
>LEAR: Dost thou call me fool, boy?      John Cowan
>FOOL: All thy other titles              http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
>             thou hast given away:      jcowan@reutershealth.com
>      That thou wast born with.         http://www.reutershealth.com
>
>
>

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