Eli5: the difference between a language and dialect?
In: 12
A language is words and rules on how to pronounce them and string them together to communicate. A dialect is a variation of a language where people make changes to the words, rules and pronunciation.
We don’t really have good rules for when to call a dialect a new language; it’s pretty clear it’s a dialect when things are VERY similar and people of different dialects can understand each other, but it becomes difficult when they get farther apart and people stop being able to understand each other.
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