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Re: "y" and "r" (Uusisuom)

From:John Cowan <cowan@...>
Date:Sunday, April 1, 2001, 17:17
Raymond Brown scripsit:

> I'm by no means an expert on Italian regional dialects, but I do understand > that northern dialects are not immediately comprehensible to southern > dialect speakers & vice-versa, i.e. there is a good deal of variation > within Italy.
I think that there is no great barrier between northerners and southerners *when both are speaking Standard Italian*. But of course people in both North and South often speak their so-called local dialects, which really amount to separate languages -- indeed, far northern Italian dialects are really Gallo-Romance rather than Italo-Romance at all.
> I was under the impression that there was some sort of notional "general > American", but I may be mistaken.
"General American" is the name of a specific regional variety. It has a broader distribution than the other regional varieties, but it is not truly "general". Furthermore, it does not have special status in the other regions. -- John Cowan cowan@ccil.org One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore --Douglas Hofstadter

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Scott W. Hlad <scott@...>General American (was "y" and "r" (Uusisuom))