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Languages And Dialects

  • Sunday Sep 27,2009 12:20 AM
  • By article king
  • In General

Anybody who’s interested in foreign languages might be interested in the different dialects of a certain language. In order to get an idea as to how varied a language can be, one need only to think of the different dialects of the English language. Words sometimes have different meanings in the US than they would have in Britain. For instance, the word biscuit refers to a bread roll in America, whereas in England, it’s what the Americans would call a cookie. One can also think of the differences between a New York dialect and an American Southern dialect to get an idea as to how different the same language can be between two regions of the same country.

These differences also exist in other languages. In the Spanish language, which is spoken by almost as many people around the world as English, there are differences between American and European Spanish. There are also differences between Mexican Spanish and South American Spanish. For instance, a tortilla is a flatbread in Mexico, but an omelette in Spain. Within Spain itself, there are also regional dialects like Catalan, and even dialects that are only spoken on certain islands, like Majorcan.

The German language also comes in a number of dialects. In Bavaria, the greeting Guten Tag is almost never heard, although it’s one of the first phrases that one would learn in a German course. The Bavarians prefer to greet each other with Gruess Gott. Switzerland also has its own German dialect, as does Austria. So how much must one worry about dialects when learning a new language?

In large Asian countries, there are also a large number of dialects spoken. In China, there is a choice between Cantonese and Mandarin. Although most people associate India with the Hindu language, it is also home to a wide variety of languages and dialects. According to Wikipedia.org, India has 22 official languages, including Sanskrit, Punjabi, Nepali, Bengali, and Urdu.

One should be able to get by with the standard form of a language wherever it’s the main language spoken. The dialect is normally not too different from the language to present a lot of misunderstanding. In fact, in some places, including Bavaria, there is a worry that the dialect could die out. At the same time, some language learners might be interested in expanding their command of a language by learning a dialect or the accent. There are numerous software and CD programs which are intended to help one speak a foreign language without a foreign accent, and if one happens to live in a country where it’s the main language, there are also speech coaches which teach this. Some people believe that getting rid of an accent is getting rid of a part of one’s identity, however, the new accent would only be used to speak the new language. The native accent stays with the native language, so rather than rejecting one’s personality, a new language and accent can add to that personality and make it more interesting.

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