LANGUAGE AND DIALECT
Dr. MADHUSUDAN MALLIK
Visvabharati
Ambiguities still hang round the terms language and dialect. To a man in the street these two terms present no difficulties. To him they appear as actual entities that would naturally be differentiated. A large number of languages and dialects are yet to be scientifically investigated and adequately described in the world. It, therefore, appears undeniable that the difficulties inhere in the very nature of themes themselves. Besides, language and dialect in their borderlands merge and mingle insensibly into each other. Therefore the relationship between them is to be considered against the background of their histories. To a linguist there is properly speaking no antagonism between a language and a dialect. Language, however far-fetched from a dialect, is still related. Thus the Great Russian and White Russian are said to be a dialect of an ancient Slavic speech. Similarly Alsatian, Swabian and Swiss German are dialects of a common German folk-speech.
The term language is derived from French
“langue” which itself late in
origin is a derivative from Latin “lingua” through the probable linguaticum. The oldest attestation for language (according
to Old English Dictionary) is dated from 1290 A. D. Latin usurped the native
terms “tongue” and “speech” current in Middle English. The word dialect, a
learned loan from Greek, is used first during the renaissance. The earliest use
of dialect (acc. to OED) dates from 1579 A. D. with reference to
certain Hebrew dialects. From Sir William Raleigh’s History of the World (1614)
we meet the use of the term “Aeolic Dialect.” This
use of the term in ancient Greek perhaps provided the basis for a distinction between language and dialect.
The term dialect was
used in a variety of senses and in a variety of contexts. In the following a
very short list in provided:
i. an informal variety of speech;
ii. applied
frequently to a sub-standard speech, i. e., the
speech which differs from the accepted norm. In other words the speech of the
lower classes of peoples;
iii. a regional or
local variety of a language (cf. Birbhum dialect of
West Bengal or Yorkshire dialect of
iv. a
specialised variety of a language (cf. the lawyer’s
dialect);
v. the language of the socially ostracized, i. e., excluded from polite society (cf. Piedmontese which from all possible standpoints–grammar,
history, etc., a language but because it was not Tuscan (lingua toscana), the standard language of
vi. in the 20th
century even cities are said to have dialects (cf. English dialect of Essex,
American dialect of
vii. geographical dialects–Yankee dialect of
viii. socia-economic dialects.
In some socio-economic affairs dialects play
a great part which most people have not taken into account. Thus the British
people sometimes lay emphasis on such terms as public schools of
To maintain a distinction between language
and dialect different languages adopted different terms. In Greek “glossa” meant language and “logos” indicated dialect. Latin
used “lingua” for language and “sermo” for dialect.
In German we find “Sprache” for language and “Rede” for dialect. Dutch had “taal”
for language and “rede” for dialect. The French
people used “langue” as equivalent to language and “parol”
as dialect. In
A dialect
abounds in a number of peculiarities which some times excite our fun, arouse
emotional utterances or lead us to wonderlands.
It consists of pithy sayings, apt monosyllables, excellent compounds (cf.
winter prow for cold, starglint for starlight,
etc.), happy phrases ( cf. want all the water to sun
in one’s ditch, etc.), magnificent words, etc.
A dialect is frequently found to preserve its
inherent traits. This element is mostly visible in the migrations of peoples
from one part of the globe to the other.
i. English of the period of migration to
ii. The French
language in
iii. Yiddish preserves
forms of 15th century
iv. The Spanish in
Latin America is closer to
v. The Portuguese in
i. Religion played a great part in the growth
of a language. In
iii. Historical, social, political, cultural
and other factors contributed not a little to the growth of a language.
iv. Rise of big towns–Athens and Rome–in the
ancient world had no mean role
in the evolution of the Athenian and Roman languages.
v. A good system of communications–roads,
rivers, canals, etc.
vi. Brisk Trade and
Excellent Commerce.
vii. Technological Developments.
viii. Invention of Printing.
ix. Rise of Industry.
x. Military Service.
xi.
Spread of Films and Newspapers.
xii. Universal Education.
xiii. Global War.
The German Neo-grammarians inaugurated the
study of dialects in order to penetrate deep into the nature of language. They realised that an understanding of the linguistic processes
through dialect studies would throw enormous light on the past history of
ethnic languages and help interpret the older texts. Actuated by such motive
Walter William Skeat founded the English Dialect
Society in 1873. His motive was to collect words with divergent pronunciations,
to transcribe specimens of dialect texts, to collect technical terms and
proverbs. His specimens ultimately took the shape of a dictionary (1896-1905).
He also gathered additional dialect vocabularies which were in use during the
last 200 years and kept himself busy subsequently in supplementary materials till
his death.
Sever Pop made a survey of dialect studies
and was instrumental in founding the International Centre
of General Dialectology at Louvain and brought out a
periodical “Orbis” as the “Bulletin Internationale de Documentation Linguistique”
for workers in dialect studies and to keep them abreast with the latest
researches.
In the early period of linguistic research
the study of dialect geography was unheard of. The early linguists paid more
attention to the official and literary languages. Scholars in the Middle Ages
and during the Renaissance were interested more in the development of standard
languages. It was only lately the importance of the study of inscriptions and
dialects came to the fore and the idea grew that dialect forms preserve archaic
features now lost in standard languages.
Towards the end of the 19th century
descriptive study of dialects began and two distinct lines of approach
developed–pure dialect description and linguistic geography or dialect
geography or dialectology. The former is concerned with the description of a
dialect in full or in part of a particular area. The latter a new study which
has a tremendous influence in the study of language and which completely revitalised the study of linguistics.
With the publication of Georg
Wenker’s “Das Rheinische
Platte” (Dusseldorf, 1877), the study of linguistic
geography may be said to have begun. He started his work of surveying the local
dialects in the Rhineland around Dusseldorf. Later he
extended the scope of his inquiry into the whole of Germany. The result of his
researches was a surprise and dialect studies confirmed the conclusions of
comparative linguistic study. Jules Gillieron (1854-1926)
in conjunction with E. Edmont did some remarkable
works. Karl Jaberg discussed in his Sprachgeographic some principles of linguistic geography.
He was followed by E. Gamillscheg, E. Dauzat, etc.
As a result of a cultural milieu, a local
dialect gets accepted as a desired or desirable media within a linguistic
community. This accepted local speech spreads out at the expense of other local
dialects. It ultimately becomes standardised, sets
its own form, vocabulary and even pronunciation. The increase of population,
spread of education, rise of commerce and industry give it an added importance.
Due to historical and other factors the
various national states in Europe developed their standard languages. In the
process of the standardisation of languages attempts
were made to create national academies to regulate the movements of national
languages. One such early endeavour was the
establishment in 1582 in Florence in Italy an Italian Academy which published
in 1612 an Italian dictionary. In France Cardinal Richelieu founded the French Academy in 1635 as part of his plan to
unify French. In England
attempts were made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to establish the
English Academy but the project did not materialise
due to Englishman’s antipathy for normalisation of a
language. The invention of the printing press was a step in this direction. In
course of time other academies came to be established in other parts of
Europe-German Academy (1617), Spanish Academy (1713), Swedish Academy (1786),
etc.
The modern standard languages did not enjoy
the same status from the early times. After the collapse of the Roman Empire,
Europe was almost everywhere in a state of linguistic decrepitude for several
centuries. National states in the modern sense of the term did not exist. The
largest political unity was the Dutchy or the
Province or in some places the “City-States.” Before 1200 or 1300 A. D. there
did not exist languages like English, German, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese, Russian, etc., but only Norman, Picard, Leonese, Austrian, Milanese, Geneonese,
Neopolitican, etc. In one particular region which, if
it became the seat of government, somehow got the supremacy in matters
linguistic and at long last set the linguistic pattern in all affairs of the
state including administration, economics and the like.
Ancient Greek: In classical Greek period there was no
unified Greek language but only a group of closely related dialects spreading
over many regions as written varieties to denote a particular literary trick –
cf. Attic for tragedy, Doric for choral lyric, Ionic for history, etc. In the
post-classical period these dialects disappeared and were replaced by a common
norm known as “Koine”, the cultural and
administrative dialect of Athens.
Italian: Italian developed as the speech of one city, viz., Florence (Tuscany)
at a time when there was no political unity in Italy. This Tuscan speech the
“lingua toscana” owed its development to Dante Alighiery who used it as his literary medium and perfected
it. He was followed by Boccaccio, Petrarch
and others who moulded the Florentine speech and
adapted it as a literary medium. With the appearance of a Venetian like Pietro Bemba in the 16th century
Italian attained majority.
Spanish: Standard Spanish had its origin in the land of Castles (Castella) around Burgos which in the 11th century became
the kingdom of Castile. This speech gradually spread its nest in the south with
military and political conquest. King Alfonso X (1252-84) played a great part
in organising and standardising
the legal, scientific and historical documents and thus paved the way for a
Spanish standard.
French: Francien, the
speech of Ile-de-France had the unique honour of being the literary medium of the whole of France.
It was essentially the speech of the middle class (bourgeoise).
Writers use it and gave it a new stamp. The country accepted it and the local
speech was publicly discouraged. Compulsory education, national conscription
and a well-regulated Press hastened the development of refined Parisian French
to spread in the outlying parts pf France.
Russian: Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg in 1703 and intended to make it
a centre of art and literature. The University of
Moscow was founded in 1755 by Michail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, the writer
of a Russian grammar who gave an opposition to the Church Slavonic which
persisted as a language of law and learning. He was followed by Karamanzin who paved the way for Pushkin,
the pioneer in modern Russian literature. His example was emulated by Lerontov who helped Turgeniv and
Tolstoy to strengthen it.
German: Standard German had its inception in the cause of religion. Martin
Luther selected the dialect of Maissen in the
Electorate of Saxony as the language of the Bible which he completed and
published in 1534. From the 14th century onwards the centre
of linguistic gravity veered from upper to middle Germany and Luther was
instrumental in adopting Early Middle German as the medium of his expression.
His writings became popular in Protestant Germany and was used as a language of
the pulpit and of the office. In the seventeenth century it was consolidated
by the professional grammarians. With the rise of Halle,
Leipzig and Berlin as cultural centres, it was
further strengthened. German writers like Goethe, Schiller, Weiland
etc., developed the language of Luther.
Norwegian: Norway became politically separate from Denmark in 1814. Attempts were
made to restore Norwegian in its pristine glory. A reformer Knurl Knudson
(1812-95) a schoolmaster of rural origin devised a step-by-step revision of
Danish towards colloquial standard. The other gentleman who also adopted a
system was Ivar Aasen
(1813-96), a pioneer in the investigation of Norwegian dialect. He proposed a
language called” Landsmaall” or National Language. In
1885 Landsmaall of Ivar Aasen was given an official status with Danish. Some two
years later Knudson’s colloquium was given preference. This tussel
between Knudson and Aasen’s modified Danish gave
birth to Dano-Norwegian called “Riksmal” or State
Language in 1900.
English: English was the gradual evolution of the speech of London. Men
converged on London from all parts of the country and brought with them their
divergent forms of speech. The language of the people of London was basically
East Midland but features from south-west also went to the make up of London
dialect. In the seventeenth century, the speech of the educated persons in London
together with the dialects spoken in Oxford and Cambridge came to be recognised as the Standard Language.