Re: nationalists, languages and dialects

"hazchem" <hazchem@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> If a dialect is not spoken in school and in the media, it is likely to
> die out in time.

Would you care to support this claim with evidence?

> Why do you think it is so important for nationalists to have the
> language spoken in schools and in the media?

Why I think it may not be why they think it, and why they think it may
very well be wrong. (I could be too, of course, but at least I
consulted some evidence first.)

As I understand it, the European nationalistes of the 19th century
wanted their langwidges used in school and administration precisely so
as not to exclude those who did not know the
metropolitan/international langwidge, which is the precise opposite of
your point.

The example of German falsifies your claim that dialects can't
co-exist with a standardised (supra-)national langwidge, and since
your problem of choice doesn't exist, your proposed solution is
pointless. (See also Italian, or just look up "diglossia" in a good
introduction to linguistics.)

[...]

> In secondary school, some subjects like science could be taught just
> in English. Exams would be taken in English. Other subjects like
> history could be taught in the local dialect. There would be no
> problems with 'economies of scale'. Even when sometimes it will take
> a bit more work it will be worth it, and it will not be so difficult
> with the internet and modern technology.

Either you need the media, administration and publishing to
accommodate a wide range of dialects - which is impractical if there
really are differences large enough to cause enduring problems with
mutual intelligibility, or you need to use another langwidge in these
domains, in which case you'll end up 'saving' the langwidge of the
hearth by 'protecting' it from being useful for anything else.

Can you give an example of this strategy actually working?

Des
suspects not, for sure
.

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