Re: A Reworking of German Language Classification


[sorry, soc.culture.* stripped by my server]

In message <71nimiFlqj6kU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Harlan Messinger <hmessinger.removethis@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes
António Marques wrote:
Harlan Messinger wrote:
You're talking about these things as though they're mutually
exclusive and as though the lines you're drawing are particularly
meaningful.
*That's* the key issue with Bob's (and other folks') obsessions. They
don't grasp the central concepts of meaningfulness and usefulness.
84? Heck. Make it 480 separate languages. What does any speaker of one of them care?

I offer a conjecture (sheer speculation, not something for which I would argue, but something that I think others have suggested here) that Ethnologue has a vested interest in teasing out as many languages as possible: to drive an increase in the number of versions of the Bible they can give the appearance of needing to publish. The more versions they can justify, the greater they can impress on contributors and potential contributors the importance of their mission.

And the primary unstated purpose of all organizations is to perpetuate themselves. Yet logically, the _fewer_ the languages, the sooner their mammoth task would be complete. Anyone would think they don't actually deep-down believe in their mission...

--
Richard Herring
.

Relevant Pages