Can Parent and Daughter co-exist?

[Nikos Sarantakos]

At 15:40 22/09/99 +0100, Larry Trask wrote:

>But the example is a nice one.  In what sense *is* there a German
>language?  Why are the local speech varieties of Bonn, Berlin, Hamburg,
>Zurich, Vienna, Strasbourg, the South Tyrol and Luxembourg all `the
>German language' -- if they are?  Why is the speech of the Netherlands
>not `German' when the nearly identical speech just across the German
>border *is* `German'?

>`The German language' is a sociopolitical fact, not a linguistic one.
>German isn't just "out there".  It is a reality created and maintained
>by people who believe there is, or should be, a `German language'.
>No more.

Nitpicking probably, but with the same token the "local speech variety"
in Luxembourg (Letzebuergesch) is not 'German'. The Grand Duchy
has three official languages, French, German and Letzebuergesch.

ns