What is the difference between languages

In English we have 24 consonants and, depending on the dialect, about 18 vowels. Rotokas, a language spoken in Bougainville has only six consonants and five vowels. Taa also known as! There are also specific ways the sounds in a language can be put together in a word. Words in some languages always finish with a vowel, while words in other languages must not have two consonants together.

In English, for example, there are some sounds that cannot occur in particular parts of the word. But this is a common sound at the beginning of words in many languages spoken in Australia. Morphology in linguistics refers to how a word is put together in a language.

But surely the difference is deeper than a snappy aphorism suggests. But in fact, there is no objective difference between the two: Any attempt you make to impose that kind of order on reality falls apart in the face of real evidence.

An English speaker might be tempted to think, for example, that a language is basically a collection of dialects, where speakers of different dialects within the same language can all understand each other, more or less.

I have a Swedish pal I see at conferences in Denmark. A Dane who moves to Sweden does not take Swedish lessons; she adjusts to a variation upon, and not an alternate to, her native speech. The speakers of these varieties of Scandinavian consider them distinct languages because they are spoken in distinct nations, and so be it.

Mandarin and Cantonese, for example, are more different than Spanish and Italian. There are cases of the Scandinavian and the Chinese kind worldwide. So, while people from different parts of a country might use the same grammar and vocabulary, they might pronounce the words differently. This is what we call their accent. So there you are, now you have a brief explanation of what each term refers to! Even though the differences can be defined in some way, there will always be a slight confusion amongst linguists because language is so linked to culture and politics.

Learn a language for free. The fastest way to learn a new language: 9 top tips. Which language will you find easiest to learn? It is the mainly the speakers of the language that are directly responsible for these changes. Language is a fascinating subject, and it can be studied under various categories such as phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. There are a lot of languages in the world. In , SIL Ethnologue cataloged 7, living human languages. Even these languages have different varieties known as dialects.

Dialect is a version of a language spoken in a particular geographical area or by a particular group of people. This could also be explained as a social or regional variety of a language distinguished by grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary; this is especially a way of speaking that differs from the standard variety of the language. For example, Cantonese and Mandarin are often classified as dialects of Chinese. Dialects can be classified into two categories: standard and non-standard.