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<blockquote data-quote="grayure" data-source="post: 2203520" data-attributes="member: 407863">It seems to me that it&#039;s more common than it used to be for particular ways of speaking to be categorised as languages rather than dialects recently.&nbsp; For instance, Scots and English are now often differentiated whereas previously they weren&#039;t, Asturian is seen as different than Castilian and the Okinawa dialect is sometimes seen as separate than the Japanese spoken in Tokyo.&nbsp; But if i hear Asturian, i can&#039;t say it&#039;s really so different than Castilian, and Scots (not Scots Gaelic!) and English are surely not so different either, though as a semi-Scot i&#039;m very attached to the idea that it&#039;s a different language, let&#039;s face it, it&#039;s not like it&#039;s West Frisian.&nbsp; So, is there something like a nationalistic or other political motive behind this?&nbsp; I just don&#039;t find it very convincing that they&#039;re all really mutually incomprehensible.Thanks, yes i know the saying (oddly appropriate that it should be Yiddish though!), but is there a recent trend in that direction?&nbsp; Is it because people are making themselves heard or attaching more importance than before to their particular style of speech?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="grayure, post: 2203520, member: 407863"] It seems to me that it's more common than it used to be for particular ways of speaking to be categorised as languages rather than dialects recently. For instance, Scots and English are now often differentiated whereas previously they weren't, Asturian is seen as different than Castilian and the Okinawa dialect is sometimes seen as separate than the Japanese spoken in Tokyo. But if i hear Asturian, i can't say it's really so different than Castilian, and Scots (not Scots Gaelic!) and English are surely not so different either, though as a semi-Scot i'm very attached to the idea that it's a different language, let's face it, it's not like it's West Frisian. So, is there something like a nationalistic or other political motive behind this? I just don't find it very convincing that they're all really mutually incomprehensible. Thanks, yes i know the saying (oddly appropriate that it should be Yiddish though!), but is there a recent trend in that direction? Is it because people are making themselves heard or attaching more importance than before to their particular style of speech? [/QUOTE]

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