[ryberg]

Originally Posted by Thor Henning

Are you saying that Iceland doesn't have a language?

Now would I ever say that?

typical Western list of languages: dialects
Spanish
Italian
Portuguese
Norwegian
Swedish
Danish
Chinese: Cantonese, Mandarin, others

same list if history were different, and/or were written by the Chinese
Romance: Spanish, Italian, Portuguese
Norse: Norwegian, Swedish, Danish
Cantonese
Mandarin
others

Linguistically it gets hard to argue either way when Spanish and Italian and Portuguese speakers, or Danish and Swedish and Norwegian speakers, can sort of get along with others in their group and communicate without anyone switching from their native tongue, arguably rather better than speakers of different "dialects" of the "language" we call Chinese can (at least orally, not talking written, here).

Steve