Montenegrin
Leif Halvard Silli
xn--mlform-iua at xn--mlform-iua.no
Wed Jun 16 16:59:08 CEST 2010
John Cowan, Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:44:53 -0400:
> Milos Rancic scripsit:
>> * Differences between *all* Slavic languages are smaller that
>> differences between the German (not Germanic!) languages. One
>> Slovenian and one Russian are able to understand each other by talking
>> slowly and explaining particular terms from time to time.
>
> The same is true of the Scandinavian languages: they form a dialect
> continuum (although there are special conventions for speaking Danish
> so other people can understand it easily). However, the languages are
> kept apart by their separate standardizations.
It seems more relevant to talk about what keeps Scandinavian languages
and Scandinavian language users together than about what keep them
apart.
Have I experienced a Dane who wanted to talk with me in English?
Unfortunately, yes. (But we continued in the traditional way, when I
insisted.)
I doubt that standard language(s) based on the same dialect can be as
different as Swedish, Norewgian Nynorsk, Norwegian Bokmål and Danish
are from each others.
--
leif halvard silli
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