Languages and Dialects

What's the difference between a language and a dialect? Some people use the words interchangeably, as though they mean the same thing, so it can be a rather confusing question. Other people use the word "dialect" as a sort of condescending term: "The variety that has the higher social value is usually called a language, while the one with the lower social value is called a dialect." (1) For example, European languages may be referred to as languages, but indigenous African languages may be referred to as dialects.

But this is not the way linguists use the terms. Generally speaking, speakers of two different dialects of the same language can more or less understand each other, while speakers of two different languages cannon understand each other. "Dialects are varieties of a language used in specific geographical areas or by particular social groups, and the speakers of the dialects of a particular language can usually understand one another even though each speaks his or her own variety." (2)

Sounds simple? Maybe, but in practice it gets pretty complicated, especially in places like Africa where there are so many different languages and varieties in constant contact with each other. In Africa (and other areas of the world), there is the complication of dialect chains. This means that while speakers of Dialect A can understand speakers of Dialect B, and Dialect B can understand Dialect C, speakers of Dialect A cannot understand speakers of Dialect Z. Clearly Dialect A and Dialect Z are two separate languages, but where do you draw the line between the two? At Dialect L or Dialect M? It is a constant debate among linguists. "A particular linguistic variety may thus be categorized by one linguist as a language and by another as a dialect." (3)

Social and political distinctions also complicate matters. Sometimes even if two dialects are mutually intelligible, their separate speakers may have such strong feelings about the distinctions between their two groups that they refer to their dialects as different languages. You can understand their feelings a little bit if you've ever experienced the reactions you get if you tell a Canadian that he is American, or an Australian that he is British - yep, you get fireworks!! Social identity is very important to people, and can even have a major effect on languages.

The results of all this confusion is that it is very hard to say exactly how many languages there are in Africa. I've seen figures everywhere from 1500 to 2100 (4), which is why I usually say that there are around 1800 languages in Africa. But however you count them, Africa is still one of the most linguistically diverse continents on the planet, containing some 30% of all the world's languages.

Footnotes:

(1) Webb, Vic and Kembo-Sure 2000. African Voices: An Introduction to the Languages and Linguistics of Africa. Oxford University Press, page 61.

(2) Webb and Kembo-Sure, African Voices, page 29.

(3) Same as above.

(4) The current figure from a leading authority, the Ethnologue, is 2,110 languages in Africa, a close second to Asia, which is listed as having 2,322.