What Is The Real Difference Between Language And Dialect

Language And Dialect is very important concept in linguistics studies.You must understand these terms.These terms can be defiened with examples and showing real life examples.We need to begin by examining what is meant by the terms ‘language’ and ‘dialect’, both for the linguist, and for the typical language user.That such terms have both popular and scientific meanings has been recognised for some time.

But even within the discipline of linguistic inquiry, the terms are not always used with the same meanings – for instance, both ‘dialect’ and ‘language’have been associated with nationhood and identity in sociolinguistic literature, but such issues are not usually of interest to linguists working on matters pertaining to the language faculty. (that part of human cognitive ability which is considered by some linguists to be unique to language, different from other parts of cognition) and structural patterns and constraints in human language (though these linguists will still use the terms ‘language’ and ‘dialect’ when discussing data of various kinds. Many theoretical linguists are interested in what we might call Language (the language faculty), which is manifested in various languages across the globe.

Here You Must Understand The Real Definition About Language And Dialect

Language: The system of spoken or written communication used by a particular country, people, community, etc., typically consisting of words used within a regular grammatical and syntactic structure.

Dialect:  Manner of speaking, language, speech; esp. a manner of speech peculiar to, or characteristic of, a particular person or class;One of the subordinate forms or varieties of a language arising from local peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation, and idiom.

Notice that such definitions illustrate how hard it can be to distinguish a language from a dialect: the last part of the definition of dialect suggests that one meaning of dialect is ‘language’! But these definitions provide a useful starting point to allow us to explore what we mean by ‘the English language’ and ‘dialects of English’.

We therefore need to consider what kind of criteria we should use to identify varieties as ‘languages’ or ‘dialects’: linguistic, social, or both. Second, part of the definition of dialect suggests that a dialect is in a subordinate position relative to a language.That subordination is both spatial and social: a dialect is smaller than a language (being restricted to a particular local or geographical area) and it carries less prestige (being different from the standard language).Third, there is a suggestion that ‘dialect’ can be used to describe the language of an individual. The more common term for the language of an individual is ‘idiolect.

However, it is clear that we will need to consider how the linguistic characteristics of the individual are related to larger concepts such as language and dialect.

by Abdullah Sam
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