From: Andrew Jarrette
Message: 63208
Date: 2009-02-19
>Thanks for that info.
> --- 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
>