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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 ground 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.

Origin of the Terms Language and Dialect

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. toOED) dates from1579 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.

Various uses of the term “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 England or Boston dialect of USA);
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 Italy, it is a dialect. It is dying away with the passage of time;
vi. in the 20th century even cities are said to have dialects (cf. English dialect of Essex, American dialect of Tennessee, etc.);
vii. geographical dialects–Yankee dialect of Boston, Russian dialect of Smolensk.
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 England or the Oxford or Cambridge accent, etc. With the progress of social reform this snobbery is being receded into the ground. Even the BBC is admitting the speech habits of some persons whose pronunciations were taboos some decades ago.

Different Names for Language and Dialect

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 Sweden “sprak� served the purpose of language and “taal� for dialect.

Special Features in a Dialect

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.

Dialectal Conservatism

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 America is closer to the language of the 17th century England than the present day England.
ii. The French language in Canada is closer to 17th century France than the French of modern Paris.
iii. Yiddish preserves forms of 15th century Germany than the language of modern Germany.
iv. The Spanish in Latin America is closer to Spain of the period of colonisation than the Spanish of modern Spain.
v. The Portuguese in Brazil in South America bespeaks of the language of Portugal of the period of discovery.

Factors Leading to the Growth of a Language

i. Religion played a great part in the growth of a language. In Greece the Oracles at Delphi and Olympia exercised a great influence on the language of the Hellas. The churches in several periods of history made no insignificant contributions to the unity of a language.  ii. Literature has no mean share in the development of a language. It is an ancient belief that all great literatures had behind them the contributions of mighty authors. Thus England had Chaucer, Germany Luther, Italy Dante, Denmark Christian Pedersen, etc. Each one of them used the language that was in the process of formation. Each kept the ball rolling that was already in motion. The importance of each lay in the fact that they became models for literary embellishments which imbued others to imitate them.
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.

History of the Study of Dialects

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.

Study of Dialect Geography or Dialectology

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.

Rise of Standard Languages

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.

Standard Languages in Europe-National Academies

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.