Moment (was: Re: Ah, look at all...)

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

> In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham" wrote:
> > Can't one argue that speakers of 'Ladin' still speak Latin? After
> > all, we could say that the Anglo-Saxons spoke English, but Old
> > English and Modern English are mutually incomprehensible.
>
> The same can be said about every modern Romance Language. "Ladin"
> is nothing else that a modern Romance belonging to the Alpine
> group (with Rheto-Romance and Friulan).

Except that, in this case, I think there is a lot in a name!

Are there any witty rules for chopping languages up diachronically?
Synchronically, we have, 'A language is a dialect with an army and a
navy.'.

Richard.