1. Countries have languages, and dialects are regional.
Language is defined as “words, their pronunciation, and the way they are combined, as understood by and by society.” Dialects, on the other hand, are defined as “regional variations of a language characterized by distinct features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.”
You may have noticed that there is not much difference between these definitions. However, it is always pointed out that while languages are “national'', dialects are more “regional'' and are often spoken by fewer people. Every country has at least one official language, which is used in official documents and government activities (such as drafting laws and regulations). Dialects can be declared as languages through statutes or proclamations. – States give special status to spoken languages as official languages. In other words, the language is recognized by the state and is therefore considered a language.
2. Although a language has an adopted written standard, dialects generally exist in oral form.
Languages often have common grammatical rules or norms based on literature. They exist not only as oral traditions but also as written documents. Conversely, dialects are more often spoken than written. And even if they are written, they are usually not included in official or national documents. Although this distinction is reasonable, it constitutes only half of the explanation.
Although the supply of available literature is certainly a criterion for selecting official languages, the reverse also works.
Once a dialect is declared an official language, it becomes permanent and authors are encouraged to write books in that language. When a nation recognizes “Language X” as its official language, all official business of the nation will be written in that language.
All statutes, memos, and even the price of carrots are written in language X. A large body of literature is often created after a language establishes itself as a dialect and is officially adopted.
And since there are now so many documents written in language X, language X has come to be considered the standard. Because written language is more flexible than spoken language, users of language X can start discussions about grammatical rules.
This ultimately makes language X seem more “evolved” than other dialects. However, we must not forget that language
3. Languages are qualitatively different from dialects
There are still people who argue that languages are inherently more “elegant” and “sophisticated” than dialects.
Judging by the evolved difficulty and complexity of Archi, a dialect spoken in the mountainous regions of Russia, French homework would seem like the easiest thing in the world. Archi has a large number of phonemes, conjugations, and intense morphology with approximately 1,502,839 forms generated from a single verb.
On the other hand, if one wanted to argue that the elegance of a language lies in its simplicity, one would hardly be able to defend the adoption of difficult languages such as Mandarin, Hungarian, or Thai as everyday languages.
For example, Chinese has over 50,000 characters (although reading a newspaper requires only 5,000 to 7,000 characters). Chinese is also a tonal language. This means that a single syllable like “ma” can mean either “mother” or “horse” depending on how it is pronounced (in fact, there are four ways to pronounce any syllable). “ma'' can also mean “rough'') “'' or “to scold'').
It's as if a language arrives at a social gathering wearing the latest suit and the most expensive perfume, whereas a dialect arrives wearing completely boring, ordinary everyday clothes. . On the surface, the two couldn't be more different.
At first glance, languages may have advantages that justify their superior status over dialects. However, as linguists looked into the issue more closely, they found that languages and dialects were becoming more similar.
So who can really say what makes a language beautiful or not? By the way, don't forget that there are dialects as valuable as recognized languages.
What is the difference between dialect and accent?
You may also want to know the difference between dialect and accent.
Many people confuse the two and think they are the same thing. The good news is that the difference is very clear.
Accent is a subset of dialect.
Whereas dialect covers all aspects of a language (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation), accent refers only to pronunciation.
Interesting research is being done on accents to classify language users according to their regions. Words and phrases that look the same can be pronounced very differently by people in two different regions.
Even just English, the language has many different characteristics and tones. Main English accents include British, Irish, Scottish, American, and Australian. Each of these has its own regional variations. Examples of American accents include Deep Southern, Texas, New York, Boston, and California.
It's true that in Britain, people living in the north and south speak the same language and use the same spelling, but the words sound quite different.
Depending on where the speakers are placed, the “R” in “bar” may be clearly audible, or it may not be heard at all. The word “bath” can sometimes sound like the “A” in “cat” or the “A” in “dad.”
What's interesting is that most people claim that their accent is the “correct” pronunciation of words. That's who we are as humans.
A person's accent may have social, economic, or geopolitical influences, but all accents are valid and correct. And they all sound beautiful.
Now we know that there is no black and white difference between languages and dialects.
You also know that accents are a subset of dialects. Now you're ready to explain the differences to people who don't yet understand them, and maybe even have a discussion with an experienced linguist.
