Are there languages that are closely related enough to be considered dialects?

Question

Languages that come from the same family are often amazingly similar. Are they ever close enough that linguists could have a reasonable debate over whether they are dialects of the same language or both descendants of a common language?
For instance, English is spoken in both the United States of America and Great Britain, but they are spoken so differently that cultural translation is often necessary for communication to take place. Do linguists consider these related languages, dialects, or the same language, and what factors go into their decision?

Answer 1

Dutch is a German dialect. Though considered an independent language now, it is actually Low German.

Answer 2

Galician (Galician: galego, IPA: [gaˈlego]) is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community with the constitutional status of "historic nationality," located in northwestern Spain and small bordering zones in neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castilla y León.

Galician and Portuguese were, in medieval times, a single language which linguists call Galician-Portuguese, Medieval Galician, or Old Portuguese, spoken in the territories initially ruled by the medieval Kingdom of Galicia. Both languages are even today united by a dialect continuum located mainly in the northern regions of Portugal.

Answer 3

Go to china and you'll find more than 50 dialects. The closest to the main language which is mandarin is cantonese.

Answer 4

Once again, the simplest question requires the most complex reply.

I think you have to define your terms. In my idiolect, there is a spectrum of communication. If close enough, one assumes it's a dialect. If the two groups are more distant, they become languages.

One other element arises- political demarcation. For example, I think Norwegian and Swedish are very, very similar. Yet one speaks one language in one country and the other in the other country *because* there are two distinct political groups involved.

OTOH, Brits and Yanks read and write practically the same language (honor versus honour; elevator versus lift) yet both are commonly accepted as English, albeit with qualifiers in certain contexts. ("BBC America broadcasts in British English while you can get American-English CNN in England.")

Historically, Latin was spoken in Europe until civilization's collapse rendered local versions apart enough that Latin became Portuguese, Spanish, French, Romanian and, arguably, Romansch (in Switzerland).

Though they are slightly different, British and American English are both considered and accepted as English.

Within the UK and the USA, there are phonetic patterns that render different styles of speed "dialects." While the written language appears nearly identical, the pronunciation of the same words is different. Thus you have the southern style of pronouncing certain vowels differently from the New England pattern. Robert McNeil's "Do You Speak American?" is excellent in identifying gullah, surfer-dude, Texan, New England, etc. The first time I saw the movie "Valley Girls," I couldn't understand what those California girls were saying. Even on DVD, I don't always understand each utterance, even though I am from California.

I think the common acceptance of French being a different language from Romanian is based on both political division and on sufficient orthographic and lexical differentation from the original language.

I'd have to leave it a bit vague- for me, a "dialect" is fairly intelligible to someone of another dialect (a Texan understands a New Englander) well enough to function. However, a Romanian does not understand a Frenchman well enough to function successfully, even though we can point to this word being nearly identical or that word being somewhat similar.

And don't forget that with the whole world communicating with each other, there are lots of borrowed words. German has an out-of-use word for infant, but the word "das Baby" has gained such wide acceptance that it's the correct word today. Similarly, every American knows what a "patio" is, borrowed from Spanish. Will we ever have a one-world language? Gee, the linguist in me says, "maybe," but the polyglot in me says, "Sure hope not." There is so much value to Sartre, Eminescu, Goya, Shakespeare, and so many others!

Answer 5

german and swiss german

spanish and catelán

Answer 6

Have you ever been to Great Britain (or America if it's the other way around for you)? They are perfectly understandable. They may have their slang, but that doesn't mean a "cultural translation is often necessary for communication to take place". No translation is required. You don't have to study anything to travel there so you can understand the natives and have them understand you.

American English, British English, Australian English... they're all just English. You can go to the other country and communicate perfectly fine with the residents. You might not know exactly what the slang means, but you would have to be pretty daft to not know from context what's going on.

Every place has its own, specific slang. Even in the UK and USA there is slang specific only to certain regions. But that doesn't make it a language you can't understand. If people all spoke formally they would be perfectly understandable.