Re: Franco-Provençal

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Jarrette" <anjarrette@...> wrote:

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "david_russell_watson" <liberty@>
> wrote:
> >
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > Mine didn't. They spoke Gaelic, Welsh, Irish, Scots, German,
> > > French and Dutch. The Appalachian dialect my cousins speak
> > > is still closer to Scots than to English.
> >
> > But Scots is just a dialect of English, isn't it?
> >
> > ;^)
> >
> > David
> >
>
>
> On this question you might look up "Scots Language" on Wiki. I just
> finished reading it. IMHO, the fact that Scots has [e] in words like
> <hame> "home", <saip> "soap", <ane> "one", <bane> "bone", <hale>
> "whole" where English has [o(U)]/[&U] is enough for me to think that
> it must be a separate language (not to mention the many other
> divergent phonetic developments). However there is a remarkable
> amount of shared innovations and developments, and also more learned
> vocabulary (as would be expected) between Scots and English, if you
> read the article further to the grammar and beyond. BTW up to now I
> had always thought Scots died out somewhere between the 17th and 19th
> centuries. But it survives yet, though reduced.
>
> Andrew
>

BTW, Wiki lists Scots Gaelic and Irish as two members of a diasystem,
i.e. they are merely political variants of one language. In a case
like this could one claim they are dialects of the same language? But
I wonder whether they really should be considered a diasystem when
Gaelic broke off from Irish somewhere around the 4th or 5th centuries
A.D. How could they remain similar enough to be considered a diasystem?

Andrew