This additional info from the former Ethnologue editor, relaying comments
from Bernard Comrie.

Unfortunately, what he does not comment on is how to evaluate the
"pronouced individuality" -- as distinct language varieties, or simply
dialects? My inclination, lacking clear evidence otherwise (and given what
the Linguasphere has to say -- see other message), would be to remain
conservative, assuming this is not a distinct langauge variety until there
is better evidence indicating otherwise.

Peter

----- Forwarded by Peter Constable/IntlAdmin/WCT on 07/24/2003 04:06 PM
-----


Dear Peter,

Bernard Comrie is an excellent linguist--one of the best. I would
accept anything he says.

Sincerely, Barbara

-----Original Message-----
From: Bernard Comrie [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 9:55 PM
To: Barbara F. Grimes
Cc: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: Sorbian (Other), or Deprecation

To:     Barbara Grimes
Cc:       Ray Gordon, Milicent Wewerka
From:       Bernard Comrie
Date:     2003 Jul 24
Subj:        Sorbian

Dear Barbara:

For relevant information on Sorbian dialects, I'd suggest looking
at the chapter on Sorbian by Gerald Stone in Comrie & Corbett,
the Slavonic Languages, Routledge, 1993, pp. 682-3. Summarizing
briefly what he says, between Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian
there are transitional dialects, and the eastern transitional
dialects of Schleife and Muskau "have a pronounced
individuality".

I believe that Helene Brijnen has been working on some of these
varieties recently. Her e-mail address (unverified) is
[log in to unmask]

Best,
Bernard

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