jIi-Ug7qo74.txt

Speaker 1:          00:06          Good day everyone. This is Paul and you are watching the langue focus Janel and today we're going to talk about that some interesting stuff. We're going to talk about the difference between a language and a dialect. Now, what is the difference all over the world there are people who speak closely related forms of communication. Sometimes they are called different languages. Sometimes they are called dialects of one language, so how do we decide which one they are? Sometimes there's some disagreement about which one a particular form of communication is. Is it a dialect or is it a separate language? The dialect really means in a variety of speech that differs somewhat from another variety of speech of that same language. It could differ in grammar, it could differ in phonology or pronunciation. It could. Different vocabulary could different. All of those may be, sometimes those dialects are based in different regions.

Speaker 1:          00:58          They are regional varieties of a language. Sometimes they are ethnic varieties of a language. For example, maybe there are two ethnic groups living in a city, but historically they've lived separate and not really interacted with each other because of racism or whatever. And they've developed a separate dialect because of that separation. So they're almost living in two worlds within the same city, that kind of thing. So it's almost like a different regional dialect inside your your on talent if you know what I'm in now, within every language there is some degree of variety, some degree of difference. There are some different spoken varieties of every language. So how do we decide if it's close enough to the language to be considered a dialect and when is it not? Well, one of the men criteria that is most often used is mutual intelligibility. That means the speakers of those two different varieties of the language can understand each other fully or almost fully understand each other.

Speaker 1:          01:53          We would say they're mutually intelligible in that case. So according to this definition, simply if you can understand each other, you can understand them and you can make yourself understood to them, then you are speaking the same language. And if even if there's some degree of difference in grammar or phonology or vocabulary, those are just dialectal differences because you can understand each other. The languages are close enough that they are considered the same language according to that definition. Now the problem with this definition is that sometimes speakers of what is considered to be one language often can't understand each other. Like for example, often I can't understand people who speak a Scottish dialect of English.

Speaker 2:          02:36          When I say it to somebody else, I'll tell you about you finally got the boys.

Speaker 1:          02:48          Often, I can't understand people who speak a Scottish dialect of English or sometimes an Australian dialect of English. If they come from like the deep countryside of Australia, sometimes I can't them. And this is especially true if I overhear two of those people speaking together, I hear them speaking with each other and not directly to me. Then they'll speak in their full on different accent, different dialect, and sometimes I can't understand. So are we speaking a different language because it's not mutually intelligible. So that's kind of the difficult point of this definition. Sometimes I can't understand other speakers of English, but I think it's the same language. And so do they. So what's going on there? So that brings me to another criteria of what would make to spoken varieties just to dialects of one language and that is this. Both of those varieties used the same written standard variety of language.

Speaker 1:          03:37          These are the same written standard, the same written language. Even though the spoken language means differ somewhat so that would explain why I speak English and a Scottish person speaks English even if there may be some trouble communicating. We both use the same written language. You both rate in the same way. We read the same books and then when we speak to each other we can adapt our speech to make it a little bit more like the written standard. Now that's why we can communicate even though I can't really understand their variety of English when they speak the pure form, when they speak it with each other, I don't, I don't really know what they're saying a lot of the time, but when they speak to me they kind of use a book English a little bit literary English. They use more of the written standard and mix it in with their natural dialect to make it understandable to me.

Speaker 1:          04:21          And I think I do the same unconsciously. So that's what makes us speakers of the same language. The fact that we, we blend our variety of speech with that Sam written standard and that's what helps us to communicate across day Alexa. Now the one weakness in this criteria and is that there are people who can't really speak to the standard language that well. So that's true in English. You have some people who are uneducated and maybe they're poor, maybe high school dropouts, maybe they're the type of people who just don't really care about studying or speaking properly. They don't really know the standard language. They might understand it, but they can't speak like that. So are those speakers have the same language even though they don't really know how to use the standard written language properly. So that's kind of the trouble with, with that criterion.

Speaker 1:          05:04          But so far that's the best criteria that I've found to explain what is a dialect and what's a language that written common standard language. Now as with all things in life, the situation gets just messy when we bring politics into it, because sometimes we have a, we have two varieties of language that are almost exactly the same, but they have two different names in two different countries or their spoken by two different ethnic groups and they both clem that language as their own. So they call it by different names and it causes a lot of weird confusion. So I've, I think it's like that in the former Yugoslavia for some of the languages there, there are people who just don't want to be associated with the other people. So they, they called the language by the name of their own ethnic group, even though it's the Sam as the language of another ethnic group basically.

Speaker 1:          05:51          So even though the standard written language might be pretty much the Sam might be slightly different, but it's pretty much the, and the spoken language is pretty much the same. Maybe with some variation, but they're mutually intelligible. Even the standard written languages mutually intelligible, but they call it a different language because of whack ass politics. I don't like politics. I'm not a political person. I'm more interested in cultures and in people, so I don't really buy that definition. I don't like it when people say we speak a different language because we have a different ethnic group at different nationality. We're going to call this language hours. It's not yours, it's ours. I don't really like that kind of territorial claiming of languages so I don't buy this definition. I think if you can speak together with each other and it's mutually intelligible, you can read the same books.

Speaker 1:          06:36          Then in my opinion you're speaking the same language. I don't really buy the political definition of what's the language and what's a dialect. So basically my definition of a dialect is that it's mutually comprehensible with another variety of language. So if you can communicate with them, they understand you, you understand them, and you can use the written language elements of the written language to make yourself even more understood. Then I think you were speaking dialects of the same language. I hope that is helpful. I hope that gives you some something to think about. Leave your comments down below. Tell me if you agree with my opinion on this matter. All right, this is Paul signing off.