[gothic-l] Re: Yiddish is based on Ostrogothic

[jdm314 at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 5/11/01 12:41:41 PM, you wrote:

<<-Balderdash! Cantonese and Mandarin are not related; they share the
use of a pictographic "script" which represents ideas, not sounds.
By analogy, the two forms of gothic resemble Scandinavian languages
(with which I have some native familiarity) in having, demonstrably,
diverged from a common root language.  Your other specious assertions
have been well enough adressed here.
-that is all-
trixie palmer (erlendsdottir)>>


Mandarin and Cantonese are indeed related. You are perhaps thinking of
Japanese, a language often assumed to be related to Chinese do to the similar
writing system. And the common assertion that chinese characters represent
ideas rather than sounds is at best only partially true... it goes back to
19th century Europeans wanting to make any pictographic script represent
Platonic Ideals. Not that there is no idiography in Chinese.
    In any case, to say that Visi- and Ostrogothic varied as much as Mandarin
and Cantonese is more that a bit incautious. Mandarin and Cantonese are about
as different as two dialects can get and still be considered the same
language. In fact, come to think of it, most linguists DO consider them
separate languages. Not that linguists ever have all too specific ideas about
what the difference is between the terms "language" and "dialect."

IUSTEINUS

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