WHY IS THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND DIALECT A DILIMNA FOR THE SOCIOLINGUIST TILL NOW?
There are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, although a number of paradigms exist, which render sometimes contradictory results. The exact distinction is therefore a subjective one, dependent on the user’s frame of reference. Language varities are often called dialects rather than languages: • solely because they are not (or not recognized as) literary languages, • because the speakers of the given language do not have a state of their own, • because they are not used in press or literature, or very little. • or because their language lacks prestige. A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists. The problem with this definition is that it implies that there is some sort of “standard” language from which all of the various dialects of that language differ. In English, however
