>> One that I note, namely, that the difference between a dialect and a
>> cognate language is only one of degree, not of kind.
>
>Karl, please provide linguistic substantiation on this point. That is a
>big claim you are making and one which I don't think is supported in the
>linguistic literature.
It's generally recognized that the distinction between "dialect" and
"language" is a political, not a linguistic one. ("A language is a
dialect with an army.")
A modern example comes from Yugoslavia. Until the war, people
generally spoke of one language: Serbo-croatian. Now some prefer
"Serbian" and "Croatian."