Re: Course on Romance languages
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, January 31, 2007, 17:40 |
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On 1/31/07, MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com <MorphemeAddict@...>
wrote:
>
> > As Max Weinreich said (in Yiddish), a language is
> > a dialect with an army and a navy. Which means that
> > Afrikaans is now a dialect of Xhosa.--John Cowan
> >
>
> I think Cowan misinterpreted Weinreich, perhaps deliberately.
Huh? The Weinreich quote is very well-known; how is John misinterpreting
it? "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy" is a pretty darn
literal translation of the original Yiddish ("אַ שפראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט
אַן אַרמײ און פֿלאָט", "a shprakh iz a dyalekt mit an armey un flot").
Of course the application to Afrikaans/Xhosa is absurd and purely comedic in
intent... but that's not a misinterpretation....
(confused)
--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>