From: unruh@invalid.ca   
      
   On 2012-05-27, Adam  wrote:   
   > [combining related replies here]   
   >   
   > Jim Beard wrote:   
   >> On 05/25/2012 09:43 AM, Adam wrote:   
   >> I would not go so far as to consider Cantonese and Mandarin as   
   >> different languages. The grammar is basically the same, and   
   >> excluding pronunciation the vocabulary is basically the same. The   
   >> pronunciation may be radically different, but I do not see this as   
   >> justifying a "different language" label.   
   >   
   > The only comparable thing that I can think of is Yiddish, which I gather   
   > (corrections welcome) is similar to German but written in Hebrew   
   > characters using the Hebrew pronunciation of those characters.   
      
   Actually it is closer to low German, which is in general not a written   
   language at all, so using Hebrew characters makes as much sense as   
   using latin letters.   
   Ie, it was a spoken, not written language.   
      
      
      
   >   
      
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