accusative cursing

James Harbeck jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA
Fri Apr 13 04:08:15 UTC 2007


>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.

I remember seeing _In the Name of the Father_ with a professor of
mine who was from Shanghai but quite fluent in English. After a few
minutes, he leaned over and asked if they were speaking English.

But Scotland and Northern Ireland don't have their own armies and
navies, do they? How then could their dialects of English achieve
separate language status? (Anyway, as if Scots English were one
dialect! different parts of that country are practically mutually
unintelligible. I do have _Teach Yourself Doric_ on my shelf, though
-- Doric is a dialect of Scots English from around Aberdeen. And some
of the exercises are "Translate into English.")

James Harbeck.

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