If cou can read french, we spoke about it there
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The author of that sentence is doubtfull. I read it was either the german philosoph Hegel, or the swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, or even the marshall Lyautey (french governor of Marocco in the 20's)... Well, actually, it is well-known and ironic apophtegm in linguists' circle, as Maïwenn and other explained.
Explanation of some proverbs (In English, please)
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I'd argue that (I think others mentioned something close to this in this thread), in order to be a "dialect", it does have to be mostly mutually intelligible (between it and another language/dialect), but that to be a "language" instead, I'd agree that when you think about it, that's political.
For instance: the official languages of Romania and Moldova are mutually intelligable - they are considered by linguists, in fact, to be the same language. Yet the two countries refer to it by different names, as if it were not a language spoken in two countries but rather two completely different languages. Why? Political reasons, of course!
Additionally - while English is counted as one big language, it has many "dialects". There's several officially-recognized ones - the Canadian, British, and American dialects, as well as I believe an Australian dialect.
There are some major differences between the three, especially when it comes to spelling; the British spell it "colour" but Americans spell it "color", for instance. The Canadian system of spelling is closer to Britain's than America's but still apparently shares a few things in common with America's. The pronunciation is completely different between British and North American dialects; Canada's dialects aurally sound more like American ones, but still have some subtle differences, and Australia sounds more like British than either of the other two, but still has some significant differences as well. And there's a few major differences in idiomatic phrases and terms, such as in Britain they say "you can't eat your cake and have it too" (which means you can't have everything at once... I think) and in America the same idiom is rearranged (for some bizarre reason) into "you can't have your cake and eat it too". Americans don't usually know what a "water closet" is, would assume a "lift" is a ride to somewhere in a vehicle, and would probably assume that a "flat" is a flood plain; and as far as Americans are concerned, Sheila (Australian slang for a woman, I believe?) is just a woman's name.
And yet, they are all considered "English", even though as pointed out, a lot of other languages are just as close or closer and still considered "seperate languages".
Why?
The fact that Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States are all usually allies might have something to do with it.
Also, I find it interesting that a lot of times, dialects in the U.S. (and I think in Canada and the U.K. as well) are simply referred to as "accents", despite there sometimes being grammatical differences, especially if we're talking northern vs. southern ("I just about fell out" does not make sense to a northerner, for instance. In case you're wondering, it's the equivalent of the idiom "I was totally floored!", if memory serves, basically, stunned or shocked). Why? Probably because they still belong to the same country, whereas Canadians, Brits and Australians don't.
It really is all politics.
Also, many of the Romance languages are close enough - at least in print - that you can get the "gist" of them if you speak a different one. For instance, I'm learning Spanish, and I can usually understand Italian or Portuguese (and to a much lesser extent, French) if I see it written - in fact, sometimes my only hint that I'm reading Portuguese is accent marks that you don't see in Spanish! Many of the words, such as "luna" for "moon", are the same or very similar between them.
Yet they're "languages", not "dialects" - why? Because Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal are all seperate countries. (Romanian's also a romance language, but it's had enough slavic influences that it's not as mutually intelligible with the others as say, Spanish and Portuguese are. Still, there are certain words, like "luna"...).
And yet, the northern and southern "dialects" of Italy pronounce many words quite differently (for instance, the end of the surname "Gallucci" is pronounced as a "chi" in one, and a "si" in the other), about the same amount of difference, I think, as between Italian and Spanish sometimes. But they're from northern and southern parts of the same country, so they're not considered "languages" but "dialects".
*posted this here because she doesn't speak French, even if she does occasionally understand the vague gist of it thanks to her Spanish lessons
*
This is a very interesting discussion.
-Runa27
For instance: the official languages of Romania and Moldova are mutually intelligable - they are considered by linguists, in fact, to be the same language. Yet the two countries refer to it by different names, as if it were not a language spoken in two countries but rather two completely different languages. Why? Political reasons, of course!
Additionally - while English is counted as one big language, it has many "dialects". There's several officially-recognized ones - the Canadian, British, and American dialects, as well as I believe an Australian dialect.
There are some major differences between the three, especially when it comes to spelling; the British spell it "colour" but Americans spell it "color", for instance. The Canadian system of spelling is closer to Britain's than America's but still apparently shares a few things in common with America's. The pronunciation is completely different between British and North American dialects; Canada's dialects aurally sound more like American ones, but still have some subtle differences, and Australia sounds more like British than either of the other two, but still has some significant differences as well. And there's a few major differences in idiomatic phrases and terms, such as in Britain they say "you can't eat your cake and have it too" (which means you can't have everything at once... I think) and in America the same idiom is rearranged (for some bizarre reason) into "you can't have your cake and eat it too". Americans don't usually know what a "water closet" is, would assume a "lift" is a ride to somewhere in a vehicle, and would probably assume that a "flat" is a flood plain; and as far as Americans are concerned, Sheila (Australian slang for a woman, I believe?) is just a woman's name.
And yet, they are all considered "English", even though as pointed out, a lot of other languages are just as close or closer and still considered "seperate languages".
Why?
The fact that Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States are all usually allies might have something to do with it.
Also, I find it interesting that a lot of times, dialects in the U.S. (and I think in Canada and the U.K. as well) are simply referred to as "accents", despite there sometimes being grammatical differences, especially if we're talking northern vs. southern ("I just about fell out" does not make sense to a northerner, for instance. In case you're wondering, it's the equivalent of the idiom "I was totally floored!", if memory serves, basically, stunned or shocked). Why? Probably because they still belong to the same country, whereas Canadians, Brits and Australians don't.
It really is all politics.
Also, many of the Romance languages are close enough - at least in print - that you can get the "gist" of them if you speak a different one. For instance, I'm learning Spanish, and I can usually understand Italian or Portuguese (and to a much lesser extent, French) if I see it written - in fact, sometimes my only hint that I'm reading Portuguese is accent marks that you don't see in Spanish! Many of the words, such as "luna" for "moon", are the same or very similar between them.
Yet they're "languages", not "dialects" - why? Because Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal are all seperate countries.
(Romanian's also a romance language, but it's had enough slavic influences that it's not as mutually intelligible with the others as say, Spanish and Portuguese are. Still, there are certain words, like "luna"...). And yet, the northern and southern "dialects" of Italy pronounce many words quite differently (for instance, the end of the surname "Gallucci" is pronounced as a "chi" in one, and a "si" in the other), about the same amount of difference, I think, as between Italian and Spanish sometimes. But they're from northern and southern parts of the same country, so they're not considered "languages" but "dialects".
*posted this here because she doesn't speak French, even if she does occasionally understand the vague gist of it thanks to her Spanish lessons
*This is a very interesting discussion.
-Runa27