Language and dialect

(first-year course: The Talking Animal, Autumn 2009)

Language

dialects?

What do we mean by:

language? dialect?

•Some possible definitions: Languages are divided into dialects Dialects are regional varieties of language Dialects are regional and social varieties of languageBut first we have to ask: what do we mean by a language?

EidskogEda

20 km

eistein

esten

Eid Edastein sten

OsloStock-holm← dialect continuum →

OsloStock-holm

EdaEid

OsloStock-holm

Norwegian Swedish

socio-political entities

EdaEid

Dialect continua in Europe

Langauge B

Language ALanguage B

Garobia Porkistan

Gorb

Porki

A national border in adialect continuum

Language ALanguage Bbilingual area

BanandiaGorskch

Nanamai

Pthsiskt

A national border between twodifferent language families

Dialect continua in Europe

What is a dialect?What a language?

Popular understanding:1. A dialect is a type of language spoken by

uneducated or country people. It is a corrupt form of the “correct” language. It is derived from the “corrrect” form.

Those who speak the language “correctly” do not speak “dialect”.

What is a dialect?What a language?

Or:2. A language is a collection of dialects,

one of which has been adopted as the standard variety, which people think of as “the language”.

The standard variety is simply another dialect.

A dialect becomes a standard:1. Selection. The dialect of the ruling or most

influential class is adopted as the standard. 2. Literacy. It acquires a written form.3. Standardizaton. Grammars and dictionaries

are composed, spelling becomes fixed, and are competing grammatical or spelling forms current, one is adopted as correct and the other(s) are deemed incorrect.

4. Elaboration. Its vocabulary increases with cultural, philosophical, technological and scientific development.

the standard language:“French”, “German”

REGIONAL DIALECTS

Socialaxis

Geographical axis

Norsk Svenska

Eidskog Eda

To Sweden, 1658

I

Weinreich 1945 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_language_is_a_dialect_with_an_army_and_navy

"Vos iz der khilek fun a dialekt biz a shprakh?" Ikh hob gemeynt, az es ruft zikh im der maskilisher bitl, un ikh hob im gepruvt aroyffirn afn rikhtikn veg, nor er hot mikh ibergerisn "Dos veys ikh, ober ikh vel aykh gebn a besere definitsye. A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot."