It would actually account for quite a lot of distinctions in the situations I mentioned previously. Swiss German is radically different from High German, and Austrian German, while closer, still has a lot of dialectical differences. Australian English is different from American English. Argentinian Spanish is different from the Spanish of Spain and both are different from Mexican Spanish.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
So the Irish government has basically imploded.
- 23/01/2011 04:47:10 PM
1533 Views
I am now confused
- 23/01/2011 05:34:31 PM
899 Views
You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment?
- 23/01/2011 06:27:05 PM
954 Views
Re: You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment?
- 23/01/2011 06:34:47 PM
877 Views
I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood).
- 23/01/2011 06:41:34 PM
857 Views
Re: I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood).
- 23/01/2011 06:43:41 PM
794 Views
Those protests were only violent by British standards.
- 23/01/2011 11:54:15 PM
864 Views
What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:26:49 PM
896 Views
Re: What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:28:40 PM
770 Views
Re: What protests?
- 25/01/2011 09:23:17 AM
897 Views
There's a new objection
- 25/01/2011 11:38:25 AM
835 Views
I didn't object...
- 25/01/2011 11:47:11 AM
722 Views
And Britain had to live with the Conservative Wilderness for 15 years before it could get there *NM*
- 24/01/2011 02:43:16 AM
430 Views
Should I start chiming in on Norwegian politics now that I'm here...? 
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
723 Views
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
723 Views
Why not?
- 24/01/2011 08:49:07 AM
862 Views
'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing.
- 26/01/2011 01:55:13 AM
860 Views
That's been a while coming, hasn't it? Cowen seems to be losing it.
- 23/01/2011 05:48:30 PM
842 Views
Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:27:27 PM
905 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:33:26 PM
857 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:19:03 PM
950 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:57:05 PM
811 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:29:03 PM
909 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:46:20 PM
868 Views
I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one.
- 23/01/2011 11:45:34 PM
825 Views
I found out something else today which makes it even better.
- 24/01/2011 10:37:45 PM
983 Views
I was reading your post and going "what about the Chiltern Hundreds"?
- 24/01/2011 10:44:32 PM
834 Views
Oh, alternatively we could elevate him to the House of Lords.
- 26/01/2011 11:08:44 PM
844 Views
Awesome idea. Something like "Baron Adams of Londonderry", I'm thinking. *NM*
- 27/01/2011 07:54:26 PM
416 Views
We made his arch-rival a Lord, after all, so it would only be fair.
- 28/01/2011 08:26:15 AM
780 Views
Here you go
- 25/01/2011 12:55:33 PM
924 Views
well, the only interesting thing in swedish politics is a wikileaks document and the reactions...
- 23/01/2011 06:21:00 PM
901 Views
What is inappropriate about trying to keep out barbaric unskilled people?
- 23/01/2011 10:59:53 PM
855 Views
- 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM
827 Views
The inappropriateness is the generalisation in the claim
- 23/01/2011 11:16:52 PM
833 Views
Generalizations are inappropriate when they are disproven by statistics, and appropriate when proven
- 24/01/2011 07:33:14 PM
788 Views
I've looked into the statistics a bit more.
- 24/01/2011 09:11:52 PM
807 Views
I take it you're talking about the Middle East in its most narrow sense here.
- 24/01/2011 09:56:22 PM
849 Views
... the fact that they are asylum seekers, and their skill certainly shouldn't matter in that case.
- 24/01/2011 07:08:14 PM
735 Views
- 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM
827 Views
Hopefully they'll stop using Irish officially as a way to cut down on unnecessary costs.
- 23/01/2011 10:57:08 PM
778 Views
I'd support that
- 23/01/2011 11:26:20 PM
850 Views
Ironically, if you de-officialised Irish you could get EU money to help preserve it.
- 23/01/2011 11:48:14 PM
759 Views
But why, why?
- 24/01/2011 08:35:43 PM
746 Views
Because it's the only thing justifying their insistence they're not British?
- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
798 Views
- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
798 Views
But all language learning should be purely voluntary (after what parents teach their children).
- 25/01/2011 03:05:28 AM
781 Views
What, so you don't think students in high school should be taught foreign languages?
- 25/01/2011 06:34:21 PM
753 Views
Irish is the mother tongue of about 7,000-15,000 people at most.
- 26/01/2011 05:04:00 AM
822 Views
Wikipedia says it's more like 40k-80k.
- 26/01/2011 06:41:41 PM
1196 Views
And Elaine, Stephen, or any other Irish people here: do feel free to comment. *NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
433 Views
*NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
433 Views
More to the point, are YOU interested in learning Irish?
- 26/01/2011 05:15:18 AM
731 Views
Calling Ireland the new Sodom and Gomorrah, are you?
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
892 Views
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
892 Views
I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis. 
- 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM
853 Views
- 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM
853 Views
Re: I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis.
- 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM
710 Views
- 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM
710 Views
Presumably because they agree with J.R.R. Tolkien and Tómas Sæmundsson about language's importance.
- 24/01/2011 10:16:05 PM
893 Views
So Australians and New Zealanders are really English then? Austrians are just Germans?
- 25/01/2011 03:01:14 AM
853 Views
I never said I agreed 
.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
825 Views
.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
825 Views
I would suggest that a distinct dialect does the job just as well
- 25/01/2011 02:23:59 PM
837 Views
That's a very good point.
- 26/01/2011 05:06:32 AM
815 Views
The thing is, people who feel really strongly about that usually insist it's a separate language.
- 28/01/2011 04:20:57 PM
702 Views
It's really more about having a unique silly costume to wear at Miss Universe pageants.
- 26/01/2011 05:09:10 AM
692 Views
You're confusing what we sell to gullible American tourists with what we actually value . *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
368 Views
. *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
368 Views
What the hell happened to the Celtic Tiger Country? *NM*
- 24/01/2011 05:47:12 AM
466 Views
The Celtic Tiger is dead, Ireland had a GDP contraction of 14% in the last two years.
- 24/01/2011 01:47:06 PM
805 Views
It's still there, but it aimed a bit too high and got a bit scorched.
- 24/01/2011 10:07:36 PM
681 Views