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Look at Arabic; one "language" despite being barely mutually intelligible between, say, Iraq and Morocco.
by Pinckney 10y ago
Look at Arabic; one "language" despite being barely mutually intelligible between, say, Iraq and Morocco.
- omonra 10y agoGood point - but people explain that it is due to political reasons [1]. Ie same way that people in Luxemburg want to point out that they have their own language different from German, rulers of Morocco (who are Arabs - majority of Morocco's population native language is Berber) want to stress that they share same language & culture with rest of the Arab world. In other words - if you are a country, you have the option to have your own language (even if it's mutually intelligible with a major other language). If you are just a part of a country, that option seems off the table (ie you need a non-mutually intelligible language to make that claim). [1] http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/why-hindi-urdu-is-one-language-and-arabic-is-several/ http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/why-hindi-urdu-is-one-langu...