Dialectical Deliberations
Popular culture usually portrays a dialect as a negative, substandard, often rustic form of a language, usually associated with speakers clutching desperately on to the lower rungs of society. Dialects are often thought of as some kind of erroneous deviation from the norm - an aberration of the 'proper' or standard form of language.
The fact is that all speakers of any language are all speakers of at least one dialect - standard English for example is as much an English dialect as is any other form of English. No dialect can be truly seen to be linguistically superior to any other. In the translation business, it is extremely important to bear this in mind.
Dictionary dialect
Linguistically speaking, dialects are usually regarded as subdivisions of a particular language. Indeed, the Oxford English dictionary defines a dialect as 'a form of a language used in a particular region or by a particular social group.' Examples of this would be the Yorkshire dialect of English or the Parisian dialect of French.
But before we look at dialects, we should perhaps have a quick glance at the definition of language as well. According to the Chambers dictionary, language is 'a collection of mutually intelligible dialects'. This is a definition which somewhat conveniently characterises a dialect as a sub-section of a language, and provides a criterion for distinguishing between one language and another.
If we take the Scandinavian languages of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, for example, these are assumed to be different languages. Speakers of these three languages can, however, understand and communicate with one another. These languages are therefore mutually intelligible. The same could be said of Czech and Slovakian.
What does this prove? Well, not much, except that it suggests that 'language' is not necessarily a linguistic notion after all. The reason why Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Czech and Slovakian are seen as single languages has as much to do with sociological, political, geographical, historical, and cultural factors, as with linguistic ones.
One could therefore argue that the term 'language' is actually quite unscientific. Linguists often refer to 'varieties of language'. If we were being hyper-pedantic, we could refer to Swedish and its two fellow tongues as varieties of Scandinavian.
Accentuating the problem
Then there is the issue of accent. Accent refers to a variety which is phonologically or phonetically different from other varieties, whereas a dialect is a variety which is grammatically (and perhaps lexically different) as well as phonologically different from other varieties. Dialects and accents frequently merge into each other without any distinct break.
Geographic Dialect Continua
No, not an unpleasant disease, but rather a path of mutual intelligibility across a geographical area. Adjacent dialects are usually intelligible but dialects which are further apart may not be. Europe has many dialect continua. An example of such is the Romance one stretching right across the Iberian Peninsula through France and Belgium down to the southern point of Italy. Throughout this area there would be some linguistic differences distinguishing one place from another. The differences would vary greatly, but with distance they would be cumulative. The further apart the places the greater the differences would become. As the distance increases between places communication becomes increasingly more difficult and eventually impossible. In places that are far apart the 'dialects' spoken are mutually unintelligible, though all across the dialect continuum a path of mutual intelligibility exists. At times it is difficult to tell where one language ends and the other begins.
On the margins
The West Germanic language continuum includes Frisian, Flemish, Low Saxon, German and Swiss German. The varieties spoken in Ostend in Belgium and Zürich in Switzerland are not mutually intelligible but are linked by a dialect continuum. Low Saxon is often regarded as a dialect of Dutch in the Netherlands but also dialect of German in Germany. How can the same 'language' be a dialect of two different ones, I hear you cry? Some argue that Low Saxon is actually a marginalised language, not a dialect of either Dutch or German.
Scots, wha hae
Most Scots who speak English do so with a Scottish accent. Their grammar and lexis is standard English, often with traces of Scots grammar and vocabulary. This is a dialect of English - usually called Scottish Standard English. But is Scots itself a dialect or a language? Over a pint of beer, linguistic experts in Scotland have long argued over this thorny issue.
Those in the 'dialect' camp dispute that it is a 'real' language with a standardised orthography and grammar and argue that it is simply a variation of English.
Defenders of Scots, however, put forward the argument that it existed as an autonomous variety with its own standardised grammar well before the act of Union with England in 1707, at a time when European languages were nowhere near as standardised as they are today. The fact that Scots itself has at least five mutually intelligible dialect groups is also used as proof that it is a language. It is argued that political and cultural manoeuvrings rather than linguistic factors have led to Scots being viewed as a dialect.
An interesting example of this political phenomenon can be seen in what is now southern Sweden, which was part of Denmark until 1650. The dialects spoken there were then considered to be dialects of Danish. As a result of war this area became part of Sweden. Forty or fifty years later these dialects were considered dialects of Swedish although no linguistic changes had taken place. These dialects had become heteronomous with respect to standard Swedish rather than Danish.
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Language, dialect or Lingo?
So where does all this leave a translation services provider like Lingo24?
When it comes down to it, there is, as yet, no 'scientific' way to prove whether a language or a dialect is, well, a language or a dialect (and there probably never will be). It often simply depends on a government's/individual's personal opinions and prejudices.
What you can be sure of is that if you require a document to be translated into a dialect/variation/disputed language, we will be able to provide you with a text translated by a native speaker of that 'tongue', for want of a better term.
If you need an English marketing spiel translated into Flemish, we'll do our utmost to find for you a native Flemish-speaking qualified translator with experience in marketing. Oh, and on top of that, they'll actually be based in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium. The same goes for Scots, Low Saxon or even the Amrum dialect of North Fresian (!).
It may be true that no dialect is linguistically superior to any other, but we would argue that Lingo24 is clearly superior to all other translation companies...