🚀 go-pugleaf

Deciding whether a particular form of speech is a dialect or a distinct
language remains unscientific. The rule of thumb is that if two speakers
can't understand each other, they speak different languages. But there is
so much politicaland sociological interference that the waters are
usually muddied.

I have my own test, which is rather more liberal:
Can a non-native speaker of the standard language understand the dialect?

Another test:
Does a film with this speech require subtitles?
(Remember "The harder they come" (I think), about Jimmy Cliff?,
 and of course teh "Jive" scenes in 'Airplane')

In the end, the question is rather silly, since there is obviously a 
continuum between language and dialect and idiolect (individual
speech). Slice the salami anyway you wish.

Eric Schiller
University of Chicago