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Are dialects considered languages?
Really, there’s no exact difference between languages and dialects. In some writing, you might see that people say dialects are just spoken, whereas languages include both written and spoken aspects, but for linguists, they’re pretty much the same. Languages are just self-important dialects.
What is the most common language?
The most spoken languages in the world
- English (1.132 million speakers) Native speakers: 379 million.
- Mandarin (1.117 million speakers)
- Hindi (615 million speakers)
- Spanish (534 million speakers)
- French (280 million speakers)
- Arabic (274 million speakers)
- Bengali (265 million speakers)
- Russian (258 million speakers)
What makes a dialect a dialect?
What Is a Dialect? In terms of its dictionary definition, a dialect is ‘a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group. ‘ This implies that we can view a language in the role of parent, with a range of dialects stemming from it.
What is dialect in linguistics?
A dialect is a regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary. Adjective: dialectal. The term dialect is often used to characterize a way of speaking that differs from the standard variety of the language. Nonetheless, as David Crystal explains below, “Everyone speaks a dialect.”.
Why do different regions have different dialects?
When different regions use different words to describe the same thing, they can reasonably be considered to be using different dialects, rather than simply different accents. The Geordie dialect in England is a good example of this.
Are all languages descended from one original language?
Some linguists believe that all languages are descended from one original human language. As such, it’s possible to consider every language on the planet to be a dialect, in some sense, of this initial tongue (you can read more on the origins of language by clicking the link below).
However, mutual intelligibility can apply to entire languages as well. Danes, Swedes and Norwegians are able to converse fairly comfortably, despite each speaking a different language. That’s because these three Scandinavian languages are mutually intelligible. So should we therefore reclassify them as dialects, instead of languages?