Q&A: Should You Learn the Dialect of a Language?

How do you feel about learning two dialects of a language at the same time? The Dictionary of Linguistics (http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199202720.001.0001/acref-9780199202720) defines dialect as a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. So in other words, you’re ALWAYS learning a language and often you might be learning one that is a dialect of another. Romanian and Italian are dialects of Latin, if we zoom out far enough. So for you as the language learner, the dialect question is relevant. But do not sweat it because there’s no single answer. Each language you will learn might handle its dialect question slightly differently. So there’s only one way to do this, and that’s to ASK. It’s the classic “what’s a dialect, what’s a language” debate, and whether it really matters. In this episode I discuss the topic in practical terms without going too far into the deep question. Every language has non-standard variants, so let’s just think about what matters most when learning a language. Thank you to my co-host Lindsay Williams (http://www.lindsaydoeslanguages.com) for this episode introduction.