How do we tell a language from a dialect?

Dialect is a specific kind of language spoken by a defined group or region. So you see that language is a broader term, and dialect comes under its shade. Language plays the role of a parent, and different dialects are stemming from it. We can view the difference between dialect and language while writing about it.

Is a language a dialect with an army and a Navy?

There’s a famous quip about defining languages that is often referenced in this context: “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.” It’s a saying popularized by the sociologist Max Weinreich, and though of course the phrase in itself is hardly scientific, it does seem to capture a certain truth about the world. How true is it, though?

Is a language a dialect?

There’s a famous quip about defining languages that is often referenced in this context: “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.” It’s a saying popularized by the sociologist Max Weinreich, and though of course the phrase in itself is hardly scientific, it does seem to capture a certain truth about the world.

Who said a language is a language with an army and flag?

Jean Laponce noted in 2004 that the phrase had been attributed in “la petite histoire” (essentially anecdote) to Hubert Lyautey (1854–1934) at a meeting of the Académie Française; Laponce referred to the adage as “la loi de Lyautey” (‘Lyautey’s law’). Randolph Quirk adapted the definition to “A language is a dialect with an army and a flag”.

What is a “a language?

A language is a dialect with an army and a navy. –Max Weinreich The western end of the Romance dialect continuum. Picture source: http://ito.userweb.mwn.de/grndkurs/uebungen/uebung11.htm. Back in graduate school, I did research on a small language spoken only by about 30,000 people in one town in what is now South Sudan.