Language and Dialects

Many speakers do experience difficulty in deciding whether what they speak is should be called a language or a dialect of language. Haugen (1966) has pointed out that language and dialect are ambiguous term. Ordinary people quite freely to speak about various situation, but the scholars often get difficulty to deal with this problem.

In case of the Greek language, Haugen argues that language can be used to refer to a single linguistic norm or to a group of related of related norms., and dialects to refer to one of the norm; but the norm themselves are not static.

In general usage, it remains undefined whether such a dialects are part of the ‘language’ or not. In fact, the dialect is often considered as a standing outside the language. As a social norm, the dialects is a language excluded from polite norm. Language and dialects may be employed virtually interchangeably. In some cases, it depends on entirely on extra linguistic consideration, particularly in certain political or social factors.