Richard wrote
> I don't think Strine (= Australian English) counts as a new
> language.
Probably not yet. Contemporary Australian is divided into two
mutually inteligible accents - General Australian (spoken by middle
class educated Australians, and in formal situations) and Broad
Asutralian (Strine), spoken by working class, less educated
Australians and in informal settings. There is little evidence for
any regional accents yet (unlike the USA or UK).
> (It does appear as a language choice in Microsoft Office, though.)
For those interested I can highly recommend Professor Afferbeck
Lauder's noteworthy book "Strine", which will show most people
how "broad Australian" is supposed to be spoak. (Afferbeck Lauder
is Strine for Alphabetical Order).
Given that some have stated that a language is not a dialects when
it has an army, then Danish and Norwegian are separate languages,
where Glaswegian and Cockney are not!
Regards
John