Re: [Ltru] Does 'de' really mean "only standard German"?

Randy Presuhn scripsit:

> I'm in complete agreement with the idea of treating the mythical Hochdeutsch
> in a manner analogous to a "focal color".  What I have a problem with are
> descriptions that lead to readings like "stuff tagged 'de' is Standard German"
> rather than "stuff tagged 'de' should be some kind of German which would be
> mutually intelligible with Standard German."

Okay, then we disagree on what "is" is.  When I say "'de' is Standard
German", mentally translate that to "'de' denotes the cluster of varieties
mutually intelligible (etc. etc.) with Standard German."  Similarly, "'en'
is English" means that 'en' denotes the varities mutually intelligible
with, say, Peter Constable's (Canadian) English.  Hey, it's better than
Mandarin, which routinely tolerates sentences like "I am [the one who
ordered] ice cream" and "She is also [a case of someone married to]
an American husband."  (Li & Thompson)

("_A Course In Phonetics_ explains everything about phonetics except
how to pronounce 'Ladefoged'.")

-- 
Time alone is real                      John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>
  the rest imaginary
like a quaternion       --phma          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
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