Erzgebirgisch Classification Question

[John Cowan]

Tracey, Niall scripsit:

> But would a speaker of Erzgerbirgisch understand a page in
> Upper Saxon? Would a speaker of Upper Saxon understand a page
> in Erzgerbirgisch? The same questions stand for Franconian and
> Erzgebirgisch?
> 
> I suspect not, although I must confess to having no knowledge of
> the languages.

By definition, if D is said to be a dialect of language L, then there is
mutual comprehensibility between D and the other dialects of language L,
and not between D and dialects of another language L'.  Neither half of
this definition is necessarily true in practice, but we do what we can.

-- 
John Cowan  cowan at ccil.org  http://ccil.org/~cowan
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on
the shoulders of giants.
        --Isaac Newton