Not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation of mine. English is spoken very widely today - British Isles, North America, Oceania and by a lot of Indians - but even though its so widespread there isn't much difference apart from accents and a few words (ie lift vs elevator).
I'm using Bulgarian as my basis for comparison here. I've been listening to this CD by Gothart (a Czech band that does modern interpretations of various Balkan folk songs), which includes a few Bulgarian songs, and I have a really hard time making out the lyrics, since they are sung using in the traditional dialects of whichever region the song is from. In fact, I have an easier time understanding the Macedonian songs than some of the Bulgarian ones.
This isn't the case so much any more, since the government has been pushing an 'official' Bulgarian for many decades, but if you go around you'll find people (especially older ones) that speak much differently. The interesting thing is that Bulgaria is quite small and has a small population, so you get situations like a town whose traditional dialect is almost unintelligible in a town 60 miles a way.
I've heard that such traditional German is even more diverse than that - and it makes sense since Germans are so numerous and were separated for so many centuries...
I'm using Bulgarian as my basis for comparison here. I've been listening to this CD by Gothart (a Czech band that does modern interpretations of various Balkan folk songs), which includes a few Bulgarian songs, and I have a really hard time making out the lyrics, since they are sung using in the traditional dialects of whichever region the song is from. In fact, I have an easier time understanding the Macedonian songs than some of the Bulgarian ones.
This isn't the case so much any more, since the government has been pushing an 'official' Bulgarian for many decades, but if you go around you'll find people (especially older ones) that speak much differently. The interesting thing is that Bulgaria is quite small and has a small population, so you get situations like a town whose traditional dialect is almost unintelligible in a town 60 miles a way.
I've heard that such traditional German is even more diverse than that - and it makes sense since Germans are so numerous and were separated for so many centuries...
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