Re: 5 languages?

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...>"
<tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> > 3.1. Language Diversity:
> >
> > Are we sure that Scots is not a separate language? (It once had

an

> > army and a navy.)
> >
> > Can we count Dutch, Frisian, Low German, High German and Danish

as

> > _five_ languages?
> >
> > Richard.
>
> Now it's my turn to nit-pick: What is Danish doing in that company?
>
> Torsten

The correct answer would be that it's absorbed Jutish. However, I
suspect that it's included because it's easier to explain its
inclusion on geographical grounds - sea as a divider - than to
explain the division of the Germanic languages. In either case, it's
Jutland that matters in this context, which is the spread of Germanic
to Britain.

Richard.