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Should dialects exist? | ||
Tags: Dialect | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| egill Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5490 days ago 418 posts - 791 votes  Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 25 of 38 12 December 2011 at 1:50am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's more like asking should we make more babies were we all immortal now.
Although I think it's a ridiculous question it's actually not an uncommon sentiment (dialect eradication not baby eradication). It's certainly conceivable though insanely difficult to do so, and I've had numerous and ultimately fruitless arguments with people, who underestimating enforcement difficulty, not only think they ought to be, but also that the standard language ought to be crystallized and any deviations therefrom beaten out of the next generation of learners. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Camundonguinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4543 days ago 273 posts - 500 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish Studies: Swedish | Message 26 of 38 01 January 2012 at 2:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am pro-dialect and anti-frozenstandard.
Even if you force language conservation, you get dialects (but this time both dialects in space in time), and end up with diglossia: think Tamil and Arabic. I like the Norwegian and Swiss German approach: native speakers should speak in their dialect. Language is a part of identity and not only a linguistic help for foreign learners. Here in Brazil we are under a constant attack of normativists who keep telling us: ''if you don't obey the standard, our language will disintegrate into numerous dialects and it will cease to exist'' yeah right, that's why Norway is rich and Brazil is poor, because we have the wrong mentality, 3rd word mentality which does not accept any tolerance and variation. The phrase ''we should use standard to understand each other'' is true only in countries with low linguistic tolerance. In Norway and German-speaking Switzerland people understand each other even though the dialect difference may be enormous. If you have enough patience and tolerance, you can understand every dialect. It's all in your head. Edited by Camundonguinho on 01 January 2012 at 2:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| heitor Newbie Brazil Joined 5031 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: Esperanto, English, German, Polish, French | Message 27 of 38 01 January 2012 at 6:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Camundonguinho,
1. You seem to reduce all wealth differences between Norway and Brazil to differences in linguistic attitude. Seeing it in this way is quite ridiculous. 2. You seem to ignore the reality of the multitude of dialectal and non-standard language uses in daily affairs. A Swiss German may speak his dialect on the streets, but he will be wise to use Standard German in more formal activities, such as politics, business, education and mass communication. 3. You seem to ignore the history of language disputes. Norwegians have for a long time discussed the issue of their language, and the question remained unsolved. Nowadays they accept both forms (Nynorsk and Bokmal), because they could not find another way. 4. You seem to overestimate the pressure of all those normativists, as if the Brazilian government itself hasn't approved last year an educational textbook (for children and teenagers) which made approving remarks about non-standard grammar (albeit en passant), with great and resistant support from Brazilian academia. 5. This kind of pressure is not exclusivity of 3rd world countries. In English-speaking countries, those people deserved a nickname: "grammar nazis", which indicates how prevalent and annoying this habit is felt to be. Dialects are just a fact of life, in the same way a standard language is a necessity of larger social communication. Edited by heitor on 02 January 2012 at 5:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Camundonguinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4543 days ago 273 posts - 500 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish Studies: Swedish | Message 28 of 38 01 January 2012 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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But, in the Norwegian parliament, a speaker can use his/her own dialect.
No one really speaks any of the two written standards, they're only written. It's a great example to follow. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6703 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 29 of 38 01 January 2012 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Is this really a unique feature of Norwegian? While nobody would use a particularly thick accent in the Swedish parliament, it's definitely possible to have a regional accent in official situations (especially broad definitions like "skånska", "norrländska" and so on). Does everybody speak RP in Britain?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6453 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 30 of 38 03 February 2012 at 12:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Dialects are all there is--it's just that some of them are considered "standard" and others are not.
It's about as profitable to argue that rainy Mondays should not exist. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Superking Diglot Groupie United States polyglutwastaken.blo Joined 6437 days ago 87 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin | Message 31 of 38 01 March 2012 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | ||
Or, to attempt a closer analogy, that because I only know how to drive a Ford, cars shouldn't exist. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vilas Pentaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6754 days ago 531 posts - 722 votes Speaks: Spanish, Italian*, English, French, Portuguese | Message 32 of 38 02 March 2012 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given species, ecosystem, or an entire planet.
Dialects are a kind of linguistic biodiversity. Accents are also part of the linguistic biodiversity. It is important to preserve linguistic biodiversity. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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