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ENG 4820History of the English Language
Dr. Michael Getty | Spring 2009
WEEK 3: THE ABSOLUTE BASICS
 
ENG4820 | Week 32
WHAT STUCK FROM LAST WEEK?
 
ENG4820 | Week 33
WHAT SHOULD HAVE STUCK
LANGUAGE VS. DIALECT
•Within communities of people who all speak the same'language,' there can be huge differences in grammar,pronunciation, and word-stock.•We often use the word ‘dialect’ to refer to divergent segmentsof a larger speech community: American vs. British, Southernvs. Midwestern, Rural vs. Urban•Except for clear-cut cases, where you draw the line betweenlanguage and dialect is a political and cultural question, not ascientific one.•Example: Walk blindfolded from Germany to the Netherlands.German and Dutch are related but separate ‘languages,’ eachwith its own traditions and institutions.•But with only your ears, you wouldn’t be be able to tell whenyou cross the border, because the linguistic variation iscontinuous across the neat political divide between them.
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