tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17577430.post115158461602400675..comments2024-03-17T02:17:34.680-05:00Comments on Philosophy Factory: Writing -- identity conditions for languagesInside the Philosophy Factoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12255753259090709877noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17577430.post-1151675027661672932006-06-30T08:43:00.000-05:002006-06-30T08:43:00.000-05:00There is no end to literature on this within the l...There is no end to literature on this within the linguistics communitiy. HIstorical linguists have one way of looking at it, sociolinguists another, congitive linguists another still.<BR/><BR/>The glib answer on dialect-language differentiation is that a language has its own army, a dialect doesn't. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are all sovereign states, with their own languages, yet those languages have 85%+ mutual intelligibility (some quibble on the exact %age). Whereas Cantonese, Madarin, and Wu Chinese are all incredibly distinct from each other, but still Chinese. <BR/><BR/>The not-so-glib answer is in internal and external group definitions, i.e. how peoples see themselves and how others see them relative to other peoples.<BR/><BR/>ASL is a distinct language, no doubt about it. <BR/><BR/>But identity can even transcend language. Switzerland is a great example. Everyone there is fiercely proud to be Swiss, yet they have four official languages in such a small country.<BR/><BR/>A very cool topic. I'm a language guy, so my take will be different than yours.<BR/><BR/>CheersApp Crithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07585269635212309400noreply@blogger.com