Some people say that Cantonese is a dialect of Chinese. Others insist that it is a language in its own . Who is correct? How do dialects differ from languages?
Two kinds of criteria are used to languages from dialects. The first are social and political: In this view, “languages” are typically written, official, and , whereas “dialects” are mostly spoken, unofficial, and looked down upon. As a saying goes, “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.” This implies that a powerful group of people like an army or a government can which dialect is chosen as the official language of a state.
Linguists have a different criterion: If two kinds of speech are so in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation that their speakers can understand each other, they are regarded as dialects of a single language. On the other hand, if is difficult or even impossible, they are different languages. On this , Mexican Spanish and Argentine Spanish are dialects of the same language (Spanish). Speakers of these dialects normally have little communicating with each other. Cantonese, on the other hand, is not considered a dialect of Chinese because speakers of the two languages can hardly with each other. This criterion of mutual understandability, though objective, can annoy nationalists. For example, Danes and Norwegians have no difficulty understanding each other, making Danish and Norwegian as dialects of the same language. Yet, few Danes or Norwegians would actually feel happy about this classification.
