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What is the difference between language families, languages, and dialects?
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Language families
All languages change over time. A community might start with one language but some members of that community might move to a different place. After a A community might start with one language but some members of that community might move to a different place. After a long period of time passes, there there will be changes in the way people in the two places speak which results in different in different dialects of the same language. There There might be so many changes overtime that the dialects changes overtime that the dialects may no longer be mutually intelligible. This means they have become different become different enough to be considered different languageslanguages. All languages that come from a common ancestor All languages that come from a common ancestor language are related to each other in the same same language family. We can figure out which languages are can figure out which languages are related to each other because their because their grammars share similarities. Language families may also be divided into subfamilies based Language families may also be divided into subfamilies based on shared characteristics.
Example: English English is in the Germanic language family, related to languages like German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and others. The Germanic The Germanic language family is part of an even bigger language family called the Indothe Indo-European language family. language family.
Languages
A language is a system of communication used by a particular nation or people. Languages may include several different dialects.
Example: English is a language.
Dialects
Dialects are varieties are varieties of a language that differ based on geographical region or social group. Each Each dialect has differences that make it unique. There There might be differences in pronunciation, in words used for certain certain things, in sentence structure or even in the structure or even in the meaning of certain words. But But dialects of the same language are are mutually intelligible. This means that speakers of one variety can understand speakers of another variety and of one variety can understand speakers of another variety and vice versa. This is the main way to tell the difference between a dialect and a language. If speakers can understand each other, in in spite of differences in their speech, they are speaking dialects of the same language.
Example: British English, Canadian Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English, etc. are some are some examples of dialects of dialects of English from different geographical regions. Even Even though there are differences, speakers of Canadian English can English can understand speakers of British English English (and other English dialects) and and they can understand us. Our dialects are mutually intelligible so they mutually intelligible so they are dialects of the same language, English.
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Dialects of First Nations languages in B.C.
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Before colonization, speakers of First Nations languages in B.C. tended to be familiar with other dialects of their language and it was even common was even common to be multilingual, speaking several different languages. The FirstVoices team encourages team encourages people who share dialects of the same language to collaborate on language reclamationlanguage reclamation, revitalization revitalization and maintenance.
Click here to see the FPCC Language List
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