accusative cursing

[James C Stalker]

In my reading of popular lit, Financial Times and such, they don't make the
distinction you, and I, do, between Scots Gaelic and English and Irish
Gaelic and English. Irish and Scots are now distinct languages in their
reports.  They don't specify Galic or English based versions.

JCS


Laurence Horn writes:

> At 11:20 PM -0400 4/12/07, James C Stalker wrote:
>> The dialect/language question is indeed a thorny one: do we define
>> languages/dialects linguistically, sociolinguistically, or politically?
>> Presumably Scots and Irish are now languages. not variations of English,
>> because the EU said they are. I can live with that.
>
> I believe the EU is referring to Scots Gaelic and Irish (= Gaelic),
> which are not now and never have been dialects or variations of
> English, but Celtic languages.  Or are you asserting that the EU
> recognizes Scots (Scots English) and Irish English (Hiberno-English)
> as distinct languages from English?  Granted, this might help explain
> why we need subtitles for "Trainspotting", but I'm not aware that
> this determination has actually been made.
>
> LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org