What do these words mean?

[peewee's lovechild]

German has hundreds of dialects. Many of them are dying or dead, but High German should be distinguished between Modern High German and Old High German.

Remember that Germany, before 1860 or so, was composed of 200-300 little to medium sized kingdoms, a result of both the Black plague and the Protestant reformation wars, both of wich destroyed the bulk of the German population, and any social development of that country/society with it.

You are corrrect. I should have made that distinction.

"Spain Spanish" is actually referred to as "Castillian Spanish".

This is true. Castillian Spanish would be the main dialect.

The differences between the language spoken in Spain and the language spoken in Mexico are very analogous to the differences between American English and British English.

Most Mexicans (to my knowledge) think that Spaniards speak Spanish in an effete, gy kind of way, just like Americans view hoity-toity British English speakers.

This is very true.

[RandomGuy]

Half wrong half right

Yes Mandarin Chinese is by far the most popular and important language in China nowadays, but how come i say you're "half wrong half right" is that because there are more than 3000 dialects in China nowadays

But all of us know Mandarin despite of accent difference,like you american english, Boston accent, NY accent, southern accent whatever, However, actually to our Chinese, cwhat dialect do we speak is depending on what province do we live in, each province has its own dialect, but as i mentioned,Mandarin definitely dominites all part of China, all of us can speak it, But usually there are just 6 major dialects in China, besides those 6 dialects, other dialects jsut belong to very few part of Chinese people

PS:" one dialect called Cantonese, this is the most signifficant dialect in China except Mandarin . accroding to the lateset report from the news, there are more than 30 million people in the world who speak Cantonese as thier first language or second language.

Yup. Any large country sewn from the quilt of smaller kingdoms, such as Germany, France, or the much larger China, all tend to have a number of dialects stemming from the periods in which there as little to no contact between peoples of neighboring kingdoms. This physical/social isolation is what drives the creation of dialects.

Inventions of the printing press and common imperial languages, such as Old High German, have the effect of killing off or supressing dialects, as well as slowing the pace of change of a language.

FWIW: I have a bachelor's degree in German, and yes, I love linguistics, and took some electives that studied both linguistics and the history of the German language, and European history in general.

I am just starting to teach myself Chinese history and language as well, but am not formally studying it. Fascinating stuff.

[RandomGuy]

Wow, well said, and this is my first time to hear something about that but good for me though

BTW, your saying style is like a teacher, are you really a teacher????

Anyway, thanks once again

I am not a teacher, but will eventually retire at some point and probably teach.

I am an accountant, with a specialization in insurance. If you think I talk at length about this stuff, don't get me started on that...

Thank you for the honor of your compliment.

[peewee's lovechild]

Yup. Any large country sewn from the quilt of smaller kingdoms, such as Germany, France, or the much larger China, all tend to have a number of dialects stemming from the periods in which there as little to no contact between peoples of neighboring kingdoms. This physical/social isolation is what drives the creation of dialects.

Inventions of the printing press and common imperial languages, such as Old High German, have the effect of killing off or supressing dialects, as well as slowing the pace of change of a language.

FWIW: I have a bachelor's degree in German, and yes, I love linguistics, and took some electives that studied both linguistics and the history of the German language, and European history in general.

I am just starting to teach myself Chinese history and language as well, but am not formally studying it. Fascinating stuff.

Ich spreche ein bessen Deutche.

But, I seem to have lost the bulk of what I learned. There's no one here that I can practice with.

[nomanches]

They are not "specifc languages", they are dialects.

Andalucian Spanish is slightly different from the Castellano spoken in Spain. That would be considered a dialect. Someone from Andalucia will understand someone from Madrid. Some Catalan words sound like Spanish, but that doesn't mean two speakers from those two languages would understand each other. They are mutually unintelligible. Therefore, they are different languages.

[RandomGuy]

Ich spreche ein bessen Deutche.

But, I seem to have lost the bulk of what I learned. There's no one here that I can practice with.

Jetzt hast du eins.

Generally there are german speaking clubs associated with university programs.

UT Austin has a Deutschubendegesellschaft (German practicing society) that used to meet once per week at Schutz' beer garden (surprise).

I am sure that one can probably find somethign similar in New Braunfels or SA.

Werde ich es suchen.

[Rapper]

Yup. Any large country sewn from the quilt of smaller kingdoms, such as Germany, France, or the much larger China, all tend to have a number of dialects stemming from the periods in which there as little to no contact between peoples of neighboring kingdoms. This physical/social isolation is what drives the creation of dialects.

Inventions of the printing press and common imperial languages, such as Old High German, have the effect of killing off or supressing dialects, as well as slowing the pace of change of a language.

FWIW: I have a bachelor's degree in German, and yes, I love linguistics, and took some electives that studied both linguistics and the history of the German language, and European history in general.

I am just starting to teach myself Chinese history and language as well, but am not formally studying it. Fascinating stuff.

Man you are awesome, this is also my first time to hear someone likes lingistics on spurstalk,it's good for you so I suppose you are capable of speaking some foreign language like German .and i have to tell you that If you master american english and one european language as well as one Asian language like Chinese, you will have a strong advantage for getting good jobs in the future.

[peewee's lovechild]

Andalucian Spanish is slightly different from the Castellano spoken in Spain. That would be considered a dialect. Someone from Andalucia will understand someone from Madrid. Some Catalan words sound like Spanish, but that doesn't mean two speakers from those two languages would understand each other. They are mutually unintelligible. Therefore, they are different languages.

You don't understand the concept of dialects. And, I don't have the patience to explain it all to you.

Maybe RandomGuy can chime in.

[peewee's lovechild]

Jetzt hast du eins.

Generally there are german speaking clubs associated with university programs.

UT Austin has a Deutschubendegesellschaft (German practicing society) that used to meet once per week at Schutz' beer garden (surprise).

I am sure that one can probably find somethign similar in New Braunfels or SA.

Werde ich es suchen.

I used to belong to Edelweiss when I lived in Brownsville. I haven't even bothered to look for anything since I moved up to San Anotnio.

And, honestly, if I were to find anything, I wouldn't be able to contribute much now.

It's been about 4 years since I had any meaningful dialogue in German.