First buttembly language encountershow to get started 567

Brian Inglis

AIUI, linguists don't really make a distinction between the notion of "dialect" and the notion of "language", instead recognizing that there is no sensible way to draw a clear line that would distinguish the two.

As good a distinction as any is the old wisecrack that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy".

By this criterion, both Belgian French and Belgian Dutch (whether one considers the internationally standard languages as spoken in Belgium or the various more local Walloon and Flemish dialects) would, I suppose, be dialects, since neither has an army entirely to itself. Despite considerable and longstanding strife and cultural separation between the two main linguistic communities in Belgium, it hasn't quite come to that yet.

I'm afraid it was. Just having a bit of fun at the expense of the long-suffering Belgians; I really shouldn't do this, not being and EU citizen. (But it is obligatory for EU citizens, innit?)

That's true. I should have said "all three dialects".

"After a fashion" because to the extent that I am able to speak the three languages, I speak rather bookish (and bookishly acquired) versions of the standard languages, and quite devoid of any specifically Belgian dialectical features.

-- Roland HutchinsonÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊWillÊplayÊviolaÊdaÊgambaÊforÊfood.

NB mail to my.spamtrap at verizon.net is heavily filtered to remove spam.ÊÊIfÊyourÊmessageÊlooksÊlikeÊspamÊIÊmayÊnotÊseeÊit.