This really doesn't solve some of the conversations that Sean and I have had about language v. dialect, but it is interesting...
From Word Watch:
Dialects and languages
What is the difference between a language and a dialect? Officially a language is the system of spoken and written words used by the people of a particular nation or area; while a dialect is (officially) the form of a language which is spoken in only one area with words or gramma slightly different from other forms of the same language. However, the reality is not as clear as that - because of the difficulty drawing a line around a language, and distinguishing two languages from two radically different dialects of the same language. And at what point does a dialect become an independent language? Is it when two dialects are 51% mutually incomprehensible? When they're two-thirds mutually incomprehensible? Or when a group becomes a nation does their dialect then become a language? "Dr Language", writing on the yourdictionary-dot-com website has a simple definition: a language (he says) is a dialect with an army!
1 comment:
i still maintain a 'language' is anything that is sufficiently changed from the original that little is recognizable as being original. And a Dialect, is simply the permutations between "Original" and "mutate".
IE:
Original = French
Dialect = Canadian Quebec French
Mutate = Louisiana Biyou French
Starts out as one language, ends up as something completely different.
:)
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