I could believe this is true if you’re only comparing languages that have the same root or parent language such as Latin languages, etc.
But I don’t see how anyone could describe the difference between Chinese and English as arbitrary or as two dialects even if the apocalyptic collapse of all major nations which spoke such languages occurred tomorrow.
My understanding is that theres something called lexical similarity and if it’s over a certain percentage it’s a dialect.
What's arbitrary isn't that languages are different from each other, what's arbitrary is where you draw the line. When you take two languages on opposite sides of the world they're unquestionably different languages. But as you transition slowly from one language to another, how many languages you spin off and which dialects fall under which languages is arbitrary.
> My understanding is that theres something called lexical similarity and if it’s over a certain percentage it’s a dialect.
Even if you tried to use a method like this to draw lines, it requires you to pick a "center" dialect that you compare all other prospective dialects/languages to. Which dialect you pick as your "center" dialect will determine which dialects end up under your umbrella language, and picking a different center would yield very different results. Which language you pick as your center is inherently a political question, one which would be settled by a sovereign state.
And aside from that problem, lexical similarity is not used to define languages. All it measures is how similar word sets are, and language variations are way more complicated than just vocabulary. No serious linguist would ever try to use a single metric like that to draw lines between languages (and again, most serious linguists aren't actually interested in drawing general-purpose lines because they understand that the lines are not real).
How does that work with e.g. French Creole which has French, Carribean, and English in it. What if this feels like a dialect but the percentage of any given parent is less than your cut-off percentage? You make the rule sound very easy to interpret but I think the general principle is that language classification is nuanced and the irony of the "navy and army" language requirement are it kind of has nothing to do with the actual language spoken.
The "navy and army" argument is usually employed when the question arises whether something is a dialect or a separate language. IMHO such Creoles should also be classified as languages, with the caveat of dialect continuums.
Creole is a weird case IMHO because English itself is pretty much a creole between Old English, Norman French, Norse, and some Gaelic and Pictish languages.
Yes, around the world electric freight locomotives are powered by overhead lines, and more occasionally by a third rail. It is a mature technology and the US is an exception among industrialized countries (China, all of Europe, Russia, Australia, Japan, etc) in that they use only diesel for freight.
I would’ve said try allergy shots but I did earlier in the year and they gave me awful side effects worse than the allergies themselves. I also get side effects from allergy medicine. I’ve used Flonase which is not an antihistamine with moderate success. A room air filter could also help indoors.
If you’re considering moving just because of the allergies maybe shoes are still worth considering. My insurance covered it and my allergies weren’t debilitating just annoying.
You’re saying a world where students can sneak onto the teachers computer before class starts and put on porn and force the entire classroom to see and hear it is a better world? I can assure you that would be one of the main uses, because it was done in my classroom using sites that the filter missed.
Ridiculous opining for an idealistic world where everyone is an inclined curious student demonstrates your disconnect from the real world. Too much time on HN and the internet will do that to you.
We’ve been a net exporter of oil since the 1970s, but global oil price is massively important. Think of how much is made and transported using petroleum.
Your argument is missing how important oil price stability is to fuel consumer and industrial consumption.
The article is clear and I agree with it, and so do the stats. Airline safety is in the ridiculously safe category. The point of the article, and stats that are easily looked up, is that there have been 0 deaths this year on major airlines but despite that a door blew out and people are loosing their minds, for months. Put this energy into figuring out how this industry has been so incredibly successful at safety so that we can apply that to cars, medicine, industry or basically any other place because airlines are s-a-f-e and the fear and panic people are driving right now because of a door is actually likely to make things worse and not better. I love aviation. I spent a large chunk of my life dedicated to it but we can't innovate even one little bit because a door broke off meanwhile we drive by fatal accidents on the road all the time. Most people know people that have died in a car accident and many have even been in near fatal accidents but there is no panic, fear or months long panic in national media over the 30k+ deaths on the road every year. I'm not blithe. I am actually mad. I -love- flying but we are devastating the industry with panic to the great loss of everyone. Go ahead, keep hyping the fear and drive people from the skies and onto the roads so that they can actually be in danger.
The discussion above was about what makes you blithe and fact-free, which I implicitly agreed with the other commenter was the case, and so, yes, the age of your account is one way how people sanity-check for trolls and shills, which is relevant to having a "discussion" at all.
One of my friends started a website called "The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter" to track all of the mortgage lenders going bust... in 2006. It is worth remembering that cheap credit with adjustable rates is what fueled that bubble and what made it unsustainable. A lot of the world (including Ireland) floats rates after the first 5 years of a mortgage.
Whereas in the US, anyone with a pre-2022 30-year fixed-rate mortgage now has a massive paper profit due to interest rates going up that can only be realized by slowly making their required payments. That gets vaporized instantly if they sell and pay off the mortgage.
Unfortunately most El Salvadorians are not backpacking through their country for recreation. It’s an assuredly different set of circumstances if you’re living there and from there.
But I don’t see how anyone could describe the difference between Chinese and English as arbitrary or as two dialects even if the apocalyptic collapse of all major nations which spoke such languages occurred tomorrow.
My understanding is that theres something called lexical similarity and if it’s over a certain percentage it’s a dialect.