No one speaks english anymore??

| I have to say you are wrong. Not often, but sometimes.
|
| There are regional dialects which are incomprehensible to other
| speakers of regional dialects. Such combinations are hard to find, but
| they do exist.
|

I think that's known as "mumbling".

On 2013-03-20 05:55:09 -0700, "Mayayana" said:

| I have to say you are wrong. Not often, but sometimes.
|
| There are regional dialects which are incomprehensible to other
| speakers of regional dialects. Such combinations are hard to find, but
| they do exist.
|

I think that's known as "mumbling".

No! Mumbling is the criteria for the selection of the Pope.

--
Regards,

Savageduck

Robert Coe wrote:
On Sun, 17 Mar 2013 14:37:28 +0100, Wolfgang Weisselberg
: Rob wrote:

: Speaking Swiss/German this chap came up and asked "where's the railway
: station", which I understood, my reply in English "down there" I don't
: know what his thoughts were.

: He only understood "railway station".

: (Translate that!)

"Bahnhof", nicht wahr?

yep, but that wasn't what I meant.

Please translate 'He only understood "railway station"' and
indicate what that means. :-)

-Wolfgang

On 2013-03-20 01:22:16 -0700, Savageduck said:

On 2013-03-20 01:14:12 -0700, (Floyd L. Davidson) said:

Eric Stevens wrote:
So when does a dialect cease to become a dialect and
become a language?

I don't even begin to know the answer to that, but I do
know that linguists are less confused about it than I
am, though even they apparently do have some variations.

There are two Eskimo languages (Inuit and Yupik), with
Yupik being the oldest and the most dialectally
differentiated. It apparently has been in place for
perhaps at least 6 to 8 thousand years. It is broken
down into 5 or 6 major regional dialects, most of which
cannot be understood by those who speak a different
dialect! It took literally decades for Western
observers to determine that it was actually one single
language. The several "amateur" linguists that
initially studied the different dialects were not well
enough grounded to pick up on the similarities, and it
wasn't until academic studies by "real" linguists were
done that it became apparent.

Interestingly enough there was this story in the SFGate back in February:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/articl...#photo-4249527

....and

then, unrelated to the debate in this NG, this appeared in a Mac NG
this morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGxKhUuZ0Rc

--
Regards,

Savageduck

Savageduck wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGxKhUuZ0Rc

Hilarious!

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:24:16 -0800, (Floyd L.
Davidson) wrote:

rwalker wrote:
On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:35:14 -0400, Robert Coe wrote:

But that's not at all what Mr Walker said. He said he thought the pretense to
finding the regional dialects of others incomprehensible is a bit of snobbery.

Bob

Exactly.

And I find your comment is itself is snobbery.


Ah, down to name calling. Welcome to my kill file.

On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:44:31 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2013-03-19 22:05:50 -0700, rwalker said:

On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:35:14 -0400, Robert Coe wrote:

But that's not at all what Mr Walker said. He said he thought the pretense to
finding the regional dialects of others incomprehensible is a bit of snobbery.

Bob

Exactly.

However, there are times the failure to comprehend that regional
dialect and accent is not a pretense. I can certainly attest that while
I was able understand what cousin D.M. and his wife Stella, with their
native Rock Spring, GA accents were saying, my English born wife Sue
didn't, and Stella was hard pressed to understand Sue.
That certainly didn't have anything to do with snobbery on her part, or
Stella's, but was explained by their lack of familiarity with those
particular accents. Stella and Sue hit it off great, but neither one
had a clue as to what the other was saying. Perhaps that was a form of
linguistic diplomacy, but both D.M. and I acted as interpreters
translating English to English.

Well, that's a bigger separation than I'm talking about. I've never
found a region in the U.S. (and I'm a U.S. native) where I couldn't
understand their spoken English. But there are certainly accents from
the British Isles that I have trouble with. But I grew up Arkansas and
West Virginia, and I've become sensitized to a lifetime of "ignorant
hillbilly" comments. (I have a Ph.D., shoes and my own teeth by the
way).

On Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:47:52 +1300, Eric Stevens
wrote:

On Wed, 20 Mar 2013 01:05:50 -0400, rwalker
wrote:

On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:35:14 -0400, Robert Coe wrote:

But that's not at all what Mr Walker said. He said he thought the pretense to
finding the regional dialects of others incomprehensible is a bit of snobbery.

Bob

Exactly.

I have to say you are wrong. Not often, but sometimes.

There are regional dialects which are incomprehensible to other
speakers of regional dialects. Such combinations are hard to find, but
they do exist.


Well, all I can say is that this hasn't been my experience.

On Thu, 21 Mar 2013 01:53:26 -0400, rwalker
wrote:

On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:44:31 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2013-03-19 22:05:50 -0700, rwalker said:

On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:35:14 -0400, Robert Coe wrote:

But that's not at all what Mr Walker said. He said he thought the pretense to
finding the regional dialects of others incomprehensible is a bit of snobbery.

Bob

Exactly.

However, there are times the failure to comprehend that regional
dialect and accent is not a pretense. I can certainly attest that while
I was able understand what cousin D.M. and his wife Stella, with their
native Rock Spring, GA accents were saying, my English born wife Sue
didn't, and Stella was hard pressed to understand Sue.
That certainly didn't have anything to do with snobbery on her part, or
Stella's, but was explained by their lack of familiarity with those
particular accents. Stella and Sue hit it off great, but neither one
had a clue as to what the other was saying. Perhaps that was a form of
linguistic diplomacy, but both D.M. and I acted as interpreters
translating English to English.

Well, that's a bigger separation than I'm talking about. I've never
found a region in the U.S. (and I'm a U.S. native) where I couldn't
understand their spoken English. But there are certainly accents from
the British Isles that I have trouble with. But I grew up Arkansas and
West Virginia, and I've become sensitized to a lifetime of "ignorant
hillbilly" comments. (I have a Ph.D., shoes and my own teeth by the
way).

Are you familiar with the suggestion that some of the hillbilly
accents may be not too different from the English speech of the 17th
and 18th centuries?
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

rwalker wrote:
On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:24:16 -0800, (Floyd L.
Davidson) wrote:

rwalker wrote:
On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:35:14 -0400, Robert Coe wrote:

But that's not at all what Mr Walker said. He said he thought the pretense to
finding the regional dialects of others incomprehensible is a bit of snobbery.

Bob

Exactly.

And I find your comment is itself is snobbery.

Ah, down to name calling. Welcome to my kill file.

If you have to make up excuses, that's as good as
any. Must be a lot easier than supporting your
statements!

BTW, you open yourself up for a lot worse by claiming
that a statement about your comments is "name calling".

Now you've made a comment that is illogical, transparent,
and self serving because it reflects on your integrity.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)