[BrandiATMuhkuh]

If you asked a linguistics (not a writer) s/he will tell you the following: Language is simply a reflection of the people who speak it. In other words, the more diverse the population of this language is, the more diverse the language will be.

This is also why the German language was so cohesive, but is getting more and more diverse. Because, the German speaking population is now more diverse.

[socialdemocrat]

That linguistic is then an idiot, and you should not listen to that person, because they clearly have no clue what they are talking about. If this claim was true, the conclusion would be that all of the US is a less diverse place than my native Norway. Why? Because the Norwegian language is far more diverse in how people speak it than American English.

And your assessment of German, displays a lack of historical knowledge of how language develops and get standardized. Most European languages tended to be far more diverse in the past. Contrary to your claim all European languages have become ever more homogenous in modern times.

Why you ask? Because language tends to develop into different forms in isolation. Hence all of Europe has historically been a patchwork of languages. The formation of nation states through the 1800s and standardized schooling is what caused the gradual homogenization of language.

It is the late founding of the US, which the the reason why American English is so homogenous despite the size of the country and its diversity.

French, German, Norwegian, Dutch and plenty of other European languages was in fact so diverse that a national standardization was needed in large part to actually be able to write books which could be used throughout.

In fact in my native Norway creating a written form of Norwegian proved so difficult we ended up with something like four different written forms all with different spelling and grammatical rules. Two of these written forms are official and taught all over Norway. Neither written form really corresponds exactly to how anybody speaks as Norwegians speak a multitude of dialects with different pronouns, grammar and words which loosely map to either of the written forms.

But at least by having a language board we have somebody trying to make sure the spelling isn't the utter mess that English is. English grammar is easier than Norwegian grammar, but the spelling is the worst of any language I have learned.

[presentation]

Lol yeah for real. I live in Japan, and when I visit off the beaten road places, it's pretty common to find old people whose dialects even my native Japanese wife can't understand. And in China, you can take a 1 hour train ride and end up in a place where the local dialect is mutually unintelligible from where you came from - just the Chinese government forced everyone to standardize on Mandarin. Both of these places are known for being dramatically less diverse than the English world, and yet here we are.

[bgorman]

I don't think German is the poster child for cohesion. Swiss German, Bavarian German, Swabian German, Low German and High German sound completely different and use different vocabulary.

The differences are much greater than the differences between Spanish or English dialects for example.