Criteria for languages?

[John Cowan]

Randy Presuhn scripsit:

> > A strict approach would be that if Latgalian is indeed a different language
> > from (mutually incomprehensible with) Latvian, then it was incorrect to tag
> > any Latgalian with "lav", and we just encode a new language and move on.
> > Same for Walliserdeutsch.
> 
> Precisely.  The question is just how mutually (in)comprehensible the are,
> and regardless of one's faith in reasonable people, that leaves a lot
> of wiggle room.

In cases of a minority language with Abstand status, the usual tests for
mutual intelligibility often break down.  For example, every Welsh-speaker
(in Wales, at least) above the age of five speaks and understands English,
but that does not mean that Welsh and English are mutually intelligible,
even in one direction.

-- 
If I read "upcoming" in [the newspaper]              John Cowan
once more, I will be downcoming                      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
and somebody will be outgoing.                       cowan at ccil.org