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Re: A New Accent, Political Boundaries and Accents,

From:Lars Henrik Mathiesen <thorinn@...>
Date:Tuesday, May 21, 2002, 11:32
> Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 07:15:47 -0400 > From: John Cowan <jcowan@...> > > Tristan McLeay scripsit: > > > Anyway, I'm just wondering. How much of an influence do political > > boundaries have on accents/dialects? Am I making more of it than it > > really is? > > Usually very little: the Canadian accent extends right over the > political boundary, as does the Border Scots accent. But when > the border divides two separate standard languages, it can have > second-order effects.
Cultural/ethnic/religious barriers can divide standard languages as well, sometimes to the point that colloquial languages achieve mutual unintelligibility. For instance: Serbian and Croatian, Hindi and Urdu. Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)

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John Cowan <jcowan@...>