Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: alderson@netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Subject: Re: What is the difference between a "dialect" and a "language?"
In-Reply-To: wtwpubs@ix.netcom.com's message of 7 Feb 1995 07:05:31 GMT
Message-ID: <aldersonD3nB2L.GIM@netcom.com>
Reply-To: alderson@netcom.com
Fcc: /u52/alderson/postings
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References: <3h763r$n3a@ixnews3.ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 19:49:32 GMT
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In article <3h763r$n3a@ixnews3.ix.netcom.com> wtwpubs@ix.netcom.com
(Gary Clark) writes:

>Does there exist, within the discipline of Linguistics, an agreed-upon
>definition of exactly what constitutes a 'language,' what constitutes a
>'dialect,' and that specifically defines what the difference is between a
>language and a dialect?

No.

>I'm seeking a definition which is based upon linguistic aspects alone, and
>does not take into consideration such things as political boundries or (to the
>degree that culture can be separated from language) cultural considerations.

There is no such definition.

>It is commonly known that the present day English and German languages both
>diverged from a single common language (which no longer exists in its original
>form). There must be some agreed-upon definition which states the degree to
>which two dialects must diverge from each other in order for them to be
>defined as separate languages. I'm looking for this definition.

Why must there be such a definition?  Even "mutual intelligibility" is relative
rather than absolute:  Cf. the dialect shading between French and Provenc,al,
or between French and Italian, or between Low German and High German; cf. also
the situation among the Slavic languages, in which much can be done by speakers
of different languages working in concert.

Unless working on dialect surveys or teaching introductory linguistics classes,
most linguists do not concern themselves with this issue in their day-to-day
work.
-- 
Rich Alderson		[Tolkien quote temporarily removed in favour of
alderson@netcom.com	 proselytizing comment below --rma]

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