Does this professor know that the Italian, French and Spanish were all originally the same language but as time went by the different regions dialects alects formed 3 new languages. And that's just 1 example of 1 language becoming numerous because of regional differences. IMO if we know dialects are the early part of New languages then it's shouldn't be odd be having trouble understanding certain dialects.
There's a bit more to it than that. Spanish, French and Italian weren't simple dialectic variants, like American and British English. Each language is an amalgam of Vulgar Latin and whatever Germanic/Celtic language was spoken by its regions settlers in the post-Roman period: Vandals, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Lombards, Burgundians, etc.
In fairness to Latin, Western Germanic has spawned its fair share of new languages. In fact we are more than likely in the process of seeing a new language be created with American English and British English have distinct pronunciations along with having the same words mean different things. In all likelihood American English with slowly merge with Spanish to an extent it will be classified as a new language.
Does this professor know that the Italian, French and Spanish were all originally the same language but as time went by the different regions dialects alects formed 3 new languages. And that's just 1 example of 1 language becoming numerous because of regional differences. IMO if we know dialects are the early part of New languages then it's shouldn't be odd be having trouble understanding certain dialects.
There's a bit more to it than that. Spanish, French and Italian weren't simple dialectic variants, like American and British English. Each language is an amalgam of Vulgar Latin and whatever Germanic/Celtic language was spoken by its regions settlers in the post-Roman period: Vandals, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Lombards, Burgundians, etc.
Latin (as a language) has a lot to answer for.
"Romani ite domum".
In fairness to Latin, Western Germanic has spawned its fair share of new languages. In fact we are more than likely in the process of seeing a new language be created with American English and British English have distinct pronunciations along with having the same words mean different things. In all likelihood American English with slowly merge with Spanish to an extent it will be classified as a new language.