Re: 5 languages?

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

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham
> <richard.wordingham@...>" <richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...>"
> > <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> > > > 3.1. Language Diversity:
> > > >
> > > > 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?

I'm going on what I'm sure is your account. The Germanic dialect
continuum was broken by the Wends, so we ended up with two contact
points between North Germanic and non-North Germanic dialects, namely
England with isolated North Germanic speakers and Jutland with
isolated non-North Germanic speakers. These isolated speakers were
absorbed, with different effects on the modern standard language.
You have often told the list of the highly non-standard Danish of
West Jutland, and have suggested that they failed to master the North
Germanic gender assignments.

Piotr has given another example in the South Slavic dialects - the
Western dialects were initially associated with those to the North
(now 'West Slavic') while the Eastern dialects were initially
associated with East Slavic dialects. Thus the strict branching
model breaks down immediately. The obvious procedure is to choose
the classification that is most useful, and always be aware that
there may be areal effects dating back to a dialect continuum.

Richard.