Garden Variety Linguist on Nostr: I teach that languages are like species & dialects are like subspecies - it turns out ...
I teach that languages are like species & dialects are like subspecies - it turns out all these things exist on a continuum of some kind, & where we draw the categorical lines is somewhat arbitrary. What biologists call "the species problem" is basically equivalent to what we call a "dialect continuum" situation in linguistics. So maybe biologists should start referring to a "subspecies continuum"?
"Language variety" has apparently replaced "dialect" as a technical linguistics term.
Published at
2024-06-21 13:49:16Event JSON
{
"id": "07c88eb850399fb232fa3c042fd0404cd38fee6d0c7040bdd33c2d1c199b8230",
"pubkey": "252408e632019727233af2dc8f1df29611f70fd931db68ea930577df4c231cb7",
"created_at": 1718977756,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"e",
"ef8685ccdb46045952b20a74c4b23e44bc6ae17a253744c1d374e66875105abe",
"",
"root"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://dice.camp/@gardenvarietylinguist/112654926257635760",
"web"
],
[
"p",
"120c3e34c9a57afc4faedb9e310366a00e6afc3f736a4995369d5ffc190bd998"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://dice.camp/users/gardenvarietylinguist/statuses/112654926257635760",
"activitypub"
],
[
"L",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"l",
"pink.momostr.activitypub:https://dice.camp/users/gardenvarietylinguist/statuses/112654926257635760",
"pink.momostr"
]
],
"content": "I teach that languages are like species \u0026 dialects are like subspecies - it turns out all these things exist on a continuum of some kind, \u0026 where we draw the categorical lines is somewhat arbitrary. What biologists call \"the species problem\" is basically equivalent to what we call a \"dialect continuum\" situation in linguistics. So maybe biologists should start referring to a \"subspecies continuum\"?\n\n\"Language variety\" has apparently replaced \"dialect\" as a technical linguistics term.",
"sig": "ec09efca46352155de4a47b1b8ca131400ab8d4acb27af4d7d80686e0bd0ab38113ddddfd08acc06f7ef810af136d53d0452e76f76fe03bbf946e259daa00ae6"
}
