Re: dialectal diversity in English

Chris Bates wrote:
>
> 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.
>
There's a difference between Scots and Scottish Gaelic; Scots is a
Germanic language, sister to Modern English and undergoing heavy
influence from Modern English, but nonetheless a different
language.  As for African Creoles, if you meant in your original
language AAVE (African American Vernacular English, or "Ebonics" [I
can't stand that term]) or other varieties of English spoken by
African folks, then what you're dealing with is not actually a
dialect of English, but a Semi-Creole.  Semi-Creoles are often
confused as dialects of the metropolitan language (such as Brazilian
Vernacular Portuguese vs. Standrd Brazilian Portuguese) - but then
to argue this would lead us back to the question of what is a
dialect and what isn't. :)  But as for Semi-Creoles, there is a
distinct pattern and history.

Cheers,
Eamon
____________________________________________________
Robert Eamon Graham              robertg@knology.net

Anugraha banana shundarata dengan bisri bastu-bastu.

                                -- U2, "Grace"

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