Accent, Dialect, Language: Difference between revisions

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Languages show variation in most any describable aspect.


The point at which you call something different, such as a different '''language''' or different '''dialect''', is not a well-settled subject and ultimately ill defined.
Languages show variation in most any aspect you could describe.  


If the difference lies purely in largely in phonetics, the variation is usually called an accent, and if there is significant variation in morphology, syntax and/or grammar, this signals that it is either language, but there are always harder cases such as (isolated) local developments, fast or slow cross-adopting, and others.
What, then, does that language describe and include?


There are some tests that will suggest a language's lexical and grammatical set of rules developed independently rather than in (cooperative) contact, and tests that will suggest dialects could have a common ancestor (e.g. though [[cognate]] identification), but this is not really an answer.


The point at which you call something different, such as a different '''language''' or different '''dialect''',
is not a well-settled subject, and ultimately ill defined.


It may be preferable to use a more neutral term such as '''language varieties''', or perhaps '''lects''' in the case of [[sociolinguistics]].


[[Dialectology]] and such often considers a dialect continuum, inspecting variation over geography and occasionally time.


There are some rough directions, though.
If the difference lies almost entirely in largely in phonetics, with no will to even have different word choice, then the variation is usually called an accent.
If there is significant variation in morphology, syntax and/or grammar, this signals that it is either its own language.
Yet there are always harder cases such as (isolated) local developments, fast or slow cross-adopting, and others.
: There are some tests that will suggest a language's lexical and grammatical set of rules developed independently rather than in (cooperative) contact, and tests that will suggest dialects could have a common ancestor (e.g. though [[cognate]] identification), but this is not really an answer.




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Things tend to be categorized as a '''dialect''' when it has not been standardized, or there is no general agreement to details. This standardization and consistency can be roughly measured, although this is more indicator than proof.
Things tend to be categorized as a '''dialect''' when it has not been standardized, or there is no general agreement to details. This standardization and consistency can be roughly measured, although this is more indicator than proof.
If a dialect has strong political lobbying, prestige, a large number of speakers, and/or an army and a navy, it's probably a language.
It is sometimes useful to use a more neutral term such as '''language varieties''',
or perhaps '''lects''' in the case of [[sociolinguistics]].
[[Dialectology]] and such often already starts off considering a dialect continuum, inspecting variation over geography and occasionally time.




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US versus UK English can also be argued about, since most of the language is the same, and most of the differences lie in a few structural spelling difference, but is also largely political.  
US versus UK English can also be argued about, since most of the language is the same, and most of the differences lie in a few structural spelling difference, but is also largely political.  


Do we, in general, consider or reject aspects such as political lobbying, prestige, number of speakers, or even by whether it has an army and a navy?


'''Accents''' tend to be specific variation in articulation that are stable in a particular part of a population.




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[[Category:Linguistics]]
[[Category:Clarification]]
[[Category:Clarification]]
[[Category:Terms]]
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Revision as of 14:14, 17 October 2023

Language units large and small

Marked forms of words - Inflection, Derivation, Declension, Conjugation · Diminutive, Augmentative

Groups and categories and properties of words - Syntactic and lexical categories · Grammatical cases · Correlatives · Expletives · Adjuncts

Words and meaning - Morphology · Lexicology · Semiotics · Onomasiology · Figures of speech, expressions, phraseology, etc. · Word similarity · Ambiguity · Modality ·

Segment function, interaction, reference - Clitics · Apposition· Parataxis, Hypotaxis· Attributive· Binding · Coordinations · Word and concept reference

Sentence structure and style - Agreement · Ellipsis· Hedging

Phonology - Articulation · Formants· Prosody · Sound change · Intonation, stress, focus · Diphones · Intervocalic · Glottal stop · Vowel_diagrams · Elision · Ablaut_and_umlaut · Phonics

Speech processing · Praat notes · Praat plugins and toolkit notes · Praat scripting notes

Analyses, models, software - Minimal pairs · Concordances · Linguistics software · Some_relatively_basic_text_processing · Word embeddings · Semantic similarity

Unsorted - Contextualism · · Text summarization · Accent, Dialect, Language · Pidgin, Creole · Natural language typology · Writing_systems · Typography, orthography · Digraphs, ligatures, dipthongs · More linguistic terms and descriptions · Phonetic scripts

✎ This article/section is a stub — some half-sorted notes, not necessarily checked, not necessarily correct. Feel free to ignore, or tell me about it.
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