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Re: Course on Romance languages

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Wednesday, January 31, 2007, 17:40
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@...>