Re: 5 languages?

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham
<richard.wordingham@...>" <richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

> --- 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.

Erh? Which absorbed what and what did it become? ;-)

I suppose one could argue that the language of the Jutes must have
been a West Germanic language, and that would mean that Jutish still
is West Germanic. What is this absorption process you mention, and
what does it do to the classification of the resulting language?

Torsten