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

Answer 1

A dialect is a variation of a language. You can see this in the differences between American and British English. They share the same fundamental vocabulary and grammar, but there are differences in the way mass nouns are treated, for example.

A language has its own vocabulary and grammar. If you compare English and German, for example, you'll see similarities, but the grammatical structure and the vocabulary have marked differences.

Answer 2

Ultimately speaking there is no difference. There are two ways I see this:

1) Linguistically, speakers of two dialects can understand each other, with various degrees of difficulty, without any knowledge of the other's dialect, i.e. they are mutually intelligible. An example is American and Britsh English.

A language is not mutual intelligible. A French speaker cannot understand an Italian speaker without prior knowledge of the other "language."

2) For political reasons, the above definitions are ignored. Mandarin and Cantonese speakers cannot understand each other despite these being called dialects. Apparently, they differ as much as Spanish and Italian.

Moldovian is said to be a different language from Rumanian, however, apparently they two people can communicate well.

All this is because Cantonese and Mandarin are spoken within the same political boundaries whereas Moldovian and Romanian are not.

Arabic on the other hand is said to have different varieties because despite intelligibility, there is much disagreement about whether they are different languages and dialects and apparently whether they are descendents of classical arabic.

Answer 3

The truth is that nobody knows for sure . Linguistics is still not an exact science.

For example, most linguists consider Portuguese and Galician to be separate languages from Spanish but there are a few who consider them to be just "hayseed" dialects of Spanish. Linguists seem to be split down the middle as to whether Ladino (or Judaeo-Spanish, Jewish Spanish) is a dialect of Spanish or a separate language.

Some linguists consider Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic to be separte languages while others consider them to be "widely divergent dialects of the same language. "

There is no consensus in English either as to what dialects are.

Some people are very conservative and claim that there are really only three: Queen's (Or King's); Cockney and Scots. They argue that the difference between American English "bæth" and British English "bawth" is only a pronunciation difference, not a dialect difference. They claim that a dialect usually entails some differences in lexicon and syntax. An example of a true dialect difference would be standard English "little" and "child" vs. Scots English "wee & barn" or Cockney "Go 'ave a coffee!" vs. Standard English "Have some coffee! or Have a cup of coffee!

On the other hand, there are other still respectable linguists who define many more. Dr. Seth Lerer, of Stanford University defines up to 22 of them in the United States alone in a course on the history of the English language that he is offering. He claims that a new dialect is emerging in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Tacoma, Portland etc.) and even defines ones as small as "San-Francisco Urban, " "Louisiana (New Orleans area) and "Baltimorese."

Obviously, though, not all linguists use the same criteria.

Answer 4

A dialect is usually based in a certain region of a country, while a language covers the whole country. A dialect may have a different pronunciation for certain words or completely seperate word altogether.

Example: Chinese is the overall language but Mandarin, Cantonese & Han are some dialects of Chinese.

Answer 5

English has many dialects. initially you have the right english, as utilized in England. then you quite've the solid Liverpool dialect, which remains english, yet with a solid british accessory and slightly diverse words. American english is spoken lots in yet in a various way than uk english. And american english has many diverse dialects too. Southerners communicate very in yet in a various way than northerners, and a few words are unique to their particular aspects. diverse slangs additionally. Black human beings actually have a various way of talking than maximum whites. Its all english, yet spoken very in yet in a various way. think of of it like chevys (autos). The language is Chevolet, the dialect is Impala or Monte Carlo. You dont understand chevy? ok Toyota. The language is Toyota, the dialect could be Highlander or Celica. desire that enables. Cheers.

Answer 6

English is a language. The way English is spoken by Americans is a dialect. The way English is spoken by the British is another dialect. The way English is spoken in the south is a different dialect from the way English is spoken by a "valley girl".

Answer 7

As linguist Max Weinreich said, "A language is a dialect with an army and navy".

Answer 8

Language - A set of basic vocabulary and grammar rules that have minor variants in different dialects.

Dialect - Area-Specific slang differs in a dialect than from the main one. Grammar variants are less common - and if they are present, are usually VERY minor (anything too great and it becomes a different language).

Answer 9

Weinreich, a linguist, said that "a langauge is a dialect with any army."

A dialect is a variation of a langauge due to geographica separation.

Answer 10

dialect is a local form of language like asian country there have cantonese, hokkien, teh chew etc...

language is a system of this used by a nation of a group like japan speak janpanese, spain speak spainese etc...