Interesting thoughts about languages and how they influence peoples view of nationality.

I remember reading years ago that in the early 17th century an Englishman from south Lincolnshire/north Norfolk could actually hold a conversation with folks from Holland. In fact there are several places along the east coast of England (and elsewhere) called Up/Lower Holland. I actually lived in a town next to a place called Up Holland.

If memory serves, the language was only really 'set' when the printing press arrived.

There was a program on TV by Adam Hart Davis who researched this. A man from Yorkshire had an awful lot of problems understanding a man from, say, Cumbria. The dialect and pronunciation was so different it was really another language.

Indeed I have read recently on these boards that some German accents are so different that other Germans have great difficulty understanding them.

Fascinating topic Don