Duane Nickull wrote:
> On 7/3/07 9:52 AM, "John F. Sowa" <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Linguists have never been able to give a precise definition of the
>> difference between a language and a dialect. The three Scandinavian
>> languages -- Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian -- are mutually more
>> intelligible than the major Chinese dialects. The best definition
>> I've heard is "A language is a dialect with an army."
>
> You don't consider "Finnish" to be a Scandanavian language? They may not
> have a large army but they have a damn good ice hockey team. (01)
Duane, (02)
Finnish is a Nordic language, but not a Scandinavian one. To those Pat
mentioned you may also add Icelandic. Indeed the three Scandinavian
languages are mutually intelligible -- knowing Norwegian, I can
understand what Swedes say, and read what Danes write. No one, I think,
is able to understand what Danes say without much previous learning. (03)
Finnish is completely different. It is perhaps one of the most
difficult European languages to learn (unless you already know, e.g.,
Estonian). (04)
vQ (05)
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