Language and Dialect

In everyday terms, a language (e.g. English) can have a number of dialects (e.g. Yorkshire,
Brooklyn), where words/pronunciation/grammar may be slightly different. It can also have a
number of accents (ways of pronouncing words). People speaking the same language but different
accents or dialects would normally be considered to be able to understand each other.

Linguists do not use the term 'dialect' as a contrast to 'language'. In fact, linguists would say that
the difference between a language and a dialect is not based on linguistic criteria at all - but on
politics/power/geography and 'identity'. For example, 'Flemish' - one of Belgium's three official
languages - is easily as similar to 'Dutch' - as spoken in the Netherlands as American English is to
British English. However, for political reasons, they are referred to as two languages. On the other
hand, Chinese is often referred to as one language with hundreds of dialects when actually there
are 'dialects' of Chinese that are as far apart from each other as Swedish and Italian. However, for
political reasons (unifying a large country), it is referred to as one language.