Re: Franco-Provençal

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

[...]

> 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?

Presumably because Early Modern Irish (or Common Classical Gaelic,
if you prefer) was the literary language of both Ireland and Gaelic
Scotland until the 17th century or so. The spoken language was a
dialect continuum.

Brian