What's the difference between a language and a dialect?

Answer 1

Tricky question.
Actually, the two are defined in relation to each other.
Two different forms of communication are dialects of the same language if they are mutually intelligible. (That means that the people using them can understand each other.)
By extrapolation, then, two forms of communication are different languages if they are not mutually intelligible.

In practice, defining them becomes much harder, because the words language and dialect are often used differently for social and political reasons. But that is the definition.

Answer 2

A language is in itself the entire spoken word. The English language involves every piece of vocabulary and grammer structure you have learned since grade school. A dialect is a variation of sorts. It could also be considered an accent.

Note the differences in how people in southern United States speak and people in Great Britain, yet we all speak "English." The dialect is a form of any given language. Each language has atleast 2 dialects because that is how the language has evolved and adapted over time. Dialects can also be considered slang or vernacular.

Answer 3

A language has old and contemprary literature while a dialect has no significant number of literature, both old and contemporary.

In addition, a dialect is a daugther of a language (one which has a literature), in a sense that a dialect has almost the same syntax, vocabulary, etc but still, different in a way to the mother language. Only that the dialect has no significant literature and still very dependent to the mother language in grammar rules, vocabulary, etc, that it is not considered a language.

For example, Latin is the mother language of French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Provencal, etc. but all these are no longer dialects of Latin but new languages because as time passed by, these dialects developed its own vocabulary, grammar, and syntax (but still, these developments can be traced to the mother language) and has produced literature.

Answer 4

A language is what we usually think of as a language -- a whole major system of vocabulary and grammar and ways of speaking within a country or culture, such as Russian, English, or French.

A dialect is a version of the language that is a little different and is used, say, in a certain part of the country. For example, my grandparents were from Slovakia. They both spoke Slovak, but they knew they were from different parts of the country as kids because a few of the words and people's accents weren't the same. You notice something like this between some vocabulary uses even from the North to the deep South of the U.S., The US to England, or Spain to Mexico, even though overall the language is the same language in each of those pairs.

Answer 5

A dialect is a non-standard special way of "using" a language. By knowing the language you're most likely to understand the dialects, if you know the dialect you'll probably not understand the language.

Answer 6

A dialect is a branch of a language. It's the same basic language, but there some differences in the way locals say things compared to users of the same language from a different area. Differences are usually particular words or slang.

Answer 7

A language is a formal language for a country, or a race.It should be spoken an written in line with its grammar.A dialect is a language that is used in everyday talk among a citizen of an ethnic.It can be used not in line with its grammar.,because it is not a formal language.

Answer 8

Language is a bigger family than a dialect, a language can have many dialects and accents.

Answer 9

If two people are speaking in two different languages they cannot understand each other.
If two people are speaking in two different dialects of the same language, they have a some, if not great, understanding of each other.

If two dialects develop sufficiently, you eventually get two different languages.

Answer 10

Language is like by word of mouth or hand signals or body movement. Dialect is like a southern accent or a German accent, the way a language is used or spoken.