Re: Flag of England

BP Jonsson wrote:

> At 14:17 17.6.2000 -0500, Thomas R. Wier wrote:
> >I'm curious -- why England?
>
> Because English became English in England, and spread from there.
But the political entity known as England is not really any older than
the presence of the language in Scotland called that -- before that,
there was the Heptarchy.

> >English has been spoken in parts of Scotland
> >for the better part of a thousand years.
>
> Scots is not English.
True, with the reservations already mentioned by Ray.  But neither are a
good many dialects in England proper, if by 'English' you mean 'Standard
English'; even then, you have to specify which standard you're referring to.

> Did Norwegians speak Danish during that better part
> of a thousand years when Danish was imposed on them as a written language?
We're obviously getting into an questioning semantics here.  What constitutes
a language?  Obviously, we all know that that's a complicated question.  Do
the Scots have an army and a navy? ;)

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: trwier
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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