What makes a language... a language? - Martin Hilpert

Dig into the distinction between a language and a dialect, and uncover the history of standardized languages.
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Outside of China, Mandarin and Cantonese are often referred to as Chinese dialects, despite being even more dissimilar than Spanish and Italian. On the other hand, speakers of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, which are three distinct languages, can usually communicate with each other in their native tongues. So, when is speech considered a dialect versus a language? Martin Hilpert investigates.
Lesson by Martin Hilpert, directed by Luísa M H Copetti, Hype CG.
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View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/what-makes...
Dig deeper with additional resources: ed.ted.com/lessons/what-makes...
Animator's website: www.luisacopetti.com and www.hype.cg
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Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Denise A Pitts, Doug Henry, Keven Webb, Mihai Sandu, Deepak Iyer, Javid Gozalov, Kyanta Yap, Rebecca Reineke, William Biersdorf, Patricia Alves Panagides, Valeria Sloan Vasquez, Yvette Mocete, Cyrus Garay, Samuel Barbas, Brighteagle, LadyGeek, Curtis Light, Dianne Palomar, Marin Kovachev, Fahad Nasser Chowdhury, Penelope Misquitta, Hans Peng, Gaurav Mathur, Erik Biemans, Tony, Michelle, Katie and Josh Pedretti, Sunny Patel, Hoai Nam Tran, Stina Boberg, Kack-Kyun Kim, Michael Braun-Boghos, zjweele13, Jurjen Geleijn, Anna-Pitschna Kunz, Edla Paniguel, Elena Crescia, Thomas Mungavan, Jaron Blackburn, Venkat Venkatakrishnan, ReuniteKorea, Aaron Henson, Rohan Gupta, Begum Tutuncu, Mikhail Shkirev, Brian Richards, Cindy O., Jørgen Østerpart, Tyron Jung, Carolyn Corwin, Carsten Tobehn and Katie Dean.

[@karimhassanu6019]

The animator deserves a raise. The animation gives the video so much more depth. Just amazing

[@cutepuppy14]

It's not always the same animater and there are usually more then one

[@wardy4887]

There are animators all across the World making animations for Ted-Ed, and as "cute puppy" stated, they don't make a whole video alone. You can become a Ted-Ed animator too if you pass their tests.

[@karimhassanu6019]

Wow I didn't know that. Props then to all their animators around the world, they always do a fantastic job

[@jacksonshaw7140]

If they gave a raise for every time we’ve said “give them a raise” they would go broke 💀

[@akashin6385]

Smooth animation.

[@Michaelonyoutub]

I learned french as a kid and in university I spent a year in germany in a region near the french border, and during that time was when I started to realize that what really makes languages different is just where someone drew the lines on the map. Before the idea of nations became a huge thing, people in any area likely could talk similar enough to communicate with people in any neighbouring area until someone drew lines between them and started educated them in a language similar to their own but different to the one across the border.

[@willianrom]

Yeah, latin languages such as Portuguese, Spanish or Italian there are many similarities

[@dmlugh]

Saluton, Cxu vi lernas esperanto? Maybe you want to know about "Esperanto", a language invented for international communication.

[@brettito]

The region of Alsace has changed nations many times. If language belonged to the nation and not the people, it would be a wonder that the people of Alsace could communicate at all.

[@catsjacinto]

@@brettito I don't know how people in Alsace speak, 'cause I've never been, but I'd guess the people speak in a way that kinda mixes french and german? In Portugal, if you go near the border with Spain in certain areas, the way they speak is almost a mixture of the two languages. Still perfectly understandable, at least for me, but I find it interesting how that works. I come from the Algarve, the south of Portugal. The most difficult accent for me to understand is from Açores. Madeira has a strong accent too, but my mom's family is from there so I guess I got used to it even though I can't imitate it. 😂

[@brettito]

@@catsjacinto It's the same in Alsace. I have visited the region many times, but in my youth. I can only imagine how it now has incorporated English into the mix.

[@whizzerbrown1349]

Everyone’s talking about the animator, but how about some love to the sound design guy? Sounds incroyable :D

[@ionicman2908]

Agreed, the sound design is great

[@literallyjustchickensandwich]

What does "incroyable" mean? Genuine question btw. This way I’m gonna remember it better, instead of googling it.

[@whizzerbrown1349]

@@literallyjustchickensandwich Oh, haha, no problem, but that’s just an autocorrect typo. It’s the French equivalent of incredible, I just had the wrong keyboard on at the time lol If you’re interested, you could say “C’est incroyable !” (That’s incredible!) if you’d want to sound French, but it isn’t an English word I must add that I like your reason for not just googling it, that’s a brilliant way :) Sorry for the confusion

[@literallyjustchickensandwich]

@@whizzerbrown1349 Thanks a lot!

[@FalleminFaul]

ладно

[@hadifarah3512]

Narrator: "Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish can communicate in their native tongues together" also Swedes: "Imagine Danes speaking a comprehensible language"

[@micayahritchie7158]

Lol

[@janmelantu7490]

One-way intelligibility is real

[@StrangeDad]

It's true that Danish is similar to both Swedish and Norwegian, and you can make out most of it if you read it, but talking to a Dane is a whole other story. There's a reason why both Norwegians and Swedes joke about the Danish language. All in good fun, mind you. We're neighbouring countries and bickering and making fun of each other is hard coded in our DNA. It's practically our traditions and culture.

[@WilfredoAguilera]

spanish, italians and portuguese can comunicate in their native languaje too.

[@kellydalstok8900]

Danes sound like they learned to talk from someone who was perpetually drunk.

[@MartinHilpert]

Author here, thanks a lot for the great discussions in the comments, and major props to the TED-Ed team who worked on this project. This was fun!

[@anushkathegreat2213]

Great job!

[@AbhishekVankit]

Thanks for touching the topic 🙂

[@ahnaftareef8679]

TED-Ed should pin this comment

[@nurindinie4886]

thank you for this kind sir

[@dhonnano7417]

Nice

[@matthewjzack.9447]

As a Language major (English) living here in the Philippines, I LOOOVE that this video talked about the politics that goes behind the "standardization" of a language, as well as talked about the distinction of language and dialect in a very nuanced and contextualized manner. For years, Filipinos were taught that languages outside Tagalog - the language that was spoken mainly in the capital of Manila, were Filipino "dialects." With the standardization and legislation of Filipino (with Tagalog as its base) and English as the official languages of the Philippines - meaning, the languages that were going to be used in official documents, as well as the main medium of instruction in schools sort of colonized and gentrified the *hundreds* of distinct regional languages of the Philippines. Language teaching bodies, as well as the academe, has been advocating to properly educate Filipinos that there are *languages* outside Tagalog, as a way to also acknowledge their distinct culture and heritage as well as advocate for the rise of more linguistic studies of these languages and their variations so that they don't die out.

[@girlsquad224]

Yeaaah! I couldn't agree more.

[@ejlmkn9207]

Agreed. Cebuanos hate it when they hear tagalog is a national language

[@matthewjzack.9447]

@@ejlmkn9207 To be fair, it *has* become the national language of the Philippines. But it has only become so because of the mandate to turn Filipino (the more "standardized" form of Tagalog) as an official language, along with English. We know as Cebuanos/Bisaya we outnumber those who natively just speak Tagalog. Most of Visayas and Mindanao speak Binisaya, but most if not all Filipinos can speak and/or understand Tagalog to various extents because of school and mass media. There is still a huge need to decentralize our concepts of a language/s away from the Metro.

[@random-uv1sy]

Cebuano ra gyud akong preferred language

[@erikkamarababol5037]

@@random-uv1sy kana kana approved jud ko ana! 👏👏👏

[@sakshitandel8572]

As an Indian the "varieties" in a language is so fundamental of our culture ..throughout my life I have seen the way languages are sculptured in different areas of the same state especially in the border areas.

[@abcxyz-]

Exactly.. India is just language paradise.

[@sakshitandel8572]

@@abcxyz- yup

[@BruceWayne-qe7bs]

Most young Indians know atleast three languages

[@sakshitandel8572]

@@BruceWayne-qe7bs Yeah me too keen on learning more.

[@elizabethkeyton3826]

Yes, in small Kerala, there are dozens of varieties of Malayalam, which makes learning it more exciting/confusing/fun haha

[@jasontungjw]

The Chinese language has so many dialects that we Chinese ourselves are so confused at times lol.

[@recordkeepingandinformatio8206]

South China is a mess of languages, cross provincial borders and suddenly you can't talk to anyone

[@theywalkinguptoyouand4060]

How are you confused? No one's asking you to translate all. There are only about 7 or 8 major dialects in China. Several hundred subdialects are spoken by a tiny minority of the population. How will you be confused by that? India and Indonesia have far more

[@rodrigoe3104]

Im not surprised at all considering China has almost half of the world’s human population (I’m exaggerating obviously, but still)

[@DebiG1057]

Great point. I have trouble with some British, Welch, and Irish English. I am am American.

[@comradeofthebalance3147]

@@theywalkinguptoyouand4060 You are comparing it slightly differently no? Just like in Indonesia and India, it is also regional and no one is asking to translate all. Just because there is somewhere that has comparatively more languages/dialects doesn’t make it less confusing for those with multiple ones.

[@indigoeyes3227]

"...dynamic, diverse, and dazzling..." THE AMOUNT OF ALLITERATION THIS SENTENCE HAS

[@weonanegesiscipelibba2973]

yo I didn't notice that at first :0 English speakers tend to do that due to its history :) "Hwæt we GARdena, in GEARdagum..." [what] [we] [gore-danes'] [in] [yore-days/dawes] "Lo! We, of Spear Danes, in days of yore..."

[@epiclegodude123]

wow the ending lines about language was absolutely beautiful

[@FalleminFaul]

ну хорошо

[@nayanaaaaaa]

As someone who is interested in languages and have been confused about accent/dialects (bcs ppl say I don't speak malay English) this is very intriguing. Thank you TedEd

[@fraktaalimainen7202]

Linguists dont use the term accent

[@KookieDanish]

Malaysian here, Malay English is basically like Standard British English, but some words have different pronunciations than British English's pronunciation. It is actually indistinguishable, but some are really distinctive, like water (British: wa'eh, ME: wa-te (e as in article 'a' ). Malay English tends to pronounce English word like how we used to pronounce Malay words. We also tend to mix Malay words with English word in our daily conversation, namely Manglish. I'm not a linguist, so I hope this clears a bit!

[@alex.g7317]

Hey, your username looks like most bot usernames I see on other videos.

[@nayanaaaaaa]

@@alex.g7317 lol I am not. i just don't want to be known and not use a cringey username bcs personality and stuff. Idk if that was a compliment but thank you

[@alex.g7317]

@@nayanaaaaaa It wasn't really a compliment or an insult. it was just something I noticed. 👍

[@solar0wind]

Standard languages are important. Imagine if contracts could just be interpreted randomly because some words mean something different in different dialects/varieties. But we shouldn't look down on varieties. I do think that learning of the standard version should be encouraged though. Here in Germany, people from regions where they don't speak standard German usually speak good standard German with people from other areas, but switch back to their respective dialects when talking to family. Not teaching a standard dialect excludes people who don't speak it because it's important as I wrote in the beginning. However, speaking your home dialect shouldn't be discouraged/punishes either.

[@dmlugh]

Maybe a Auxiliar Language can be the answer, like Esperanto. Mi lernas Esperanto kaj estas tre facxila

[@solar0wind]

@BR derivation Partly. In some countries you can decide what language you want to be contacted in, like in Ireland. That would be possible I suppose. Teaching some subjects in the regional variety would be a possibility too. Still, it's very impractical because you limit the potential candidates for jobs to people of that area, and here in Germany it's entirely likely that a young teacher has to move several times throughout the whole country, until they get a long-term contract. How are they supposed to learn every dialect? And the language in law needs to be concise and uniform or it will just lead to chaos. Imagine lawyers from one area of Germany read a court decision from another area and because of the different dialect, they'd understand wrong what it says! The chaos would be perfect.

[@sergiofric3458]

@BR derivation There are more important things then culture, system needs to work good for culture to survive. There should be standardized languages in every country I guess. In my country there’s minority called Malisori that speaks whole different language. They have gymnasium in their area that lets them learn everything in their own language which is very cool at first sight, but I think I shouldn’t mention that they have a lot of problems finding any good job in capital because they can’t speak our language good? I think minorities like that should have a single class that teaches their culture and language, but they should mostly educate in standard language so they can later have fair career opportunities.

[@crazydragy4233]

@BR derivation People act like bilingualism or even polylinguism is a big deal when it's not. As much as I like utilitarianism this sort of stuff really is bs for sure. Language is fluid and infinite, yet prescriptivism is still as rampant as ever. It really is all about politics, just like the video stated.

[@kellydalstok8900]

@@dmlugh No, because Esperanto is basically some kind of Spanish or Portugese artificially made regular. It discriminates all other languages.

[@bag3lmonst3r72]

Max Weinreich didn't say that. Rather it was an anonymous member of his audience, which he gave due credit to.

[@LeCheckmate]

He gave due credit to the anonymous person?

[@ariana_208]

My dad speaks schwäbisch, to other Germans it sounds like he’s speaking gibberish

[@DerAnanasbaum]

As someone from Baden I have a moral obligation to tell you it is. (But at least it's not Bavarian)

[@renzbryandejucos9038]

I am fillipino which speaks Tagalog and my fathers dialect is Bisaya whist my mom speaks Bicolano

[@jamieb4031]

@@renzbryandejucos9038 as a Filipino, I have to tell you that Bisaya and Bicolano are languages and not dialects.

[@dakotag1254]

@@jamieb4031 As a Visayan, I must point out that although Bisaya is often an interchangeable name for Cebuano, it could also be used to describe all of the languages and ethnic groups from the Visayas.

[@jamieb4031]

@@dakotag1254 I'm Visayan too! 6100, Hiligaynon mother tongue! And yes, I meant colloquial Bisaya as in Cebuano (although it's also used outside of Cebu). But yeah, you're also right.

[@EliStettner]

“A language is a dialect with an Army and a Navy.” - Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich

[@edi9892]

Wehrmacht: San se deppat? Woas hast xagt? (Austrian: are you nuts? Bavarian: what did you say?)

[@mohamadalrashed9064]

Malaysian English is just English but you end every sentence with " La " XD

[@wheresmyeyebrow1608]

Hong Kong English is just English but you end every sentence with "Ah"

[@wondertraveller9928]

Are you sure la?

[@StefanCatherasoo]

No la 😁

[@AA-bb9rb]

Also add "kan" randomly and insert Malay words and phrases randomly.

[@edouardfelicite69]

no one asked

[@ecclesiasticman4417]

The Philippines calls other languages within the country as dialects even though they're unintelligible to eachother.

[@user-hf6qs5tu7n]

iirc they're called languages for quite a while now.

[@zenithchan1646]

I know right? theres: Tagalog Cebuano Ilocano Hiligaynon Kapampangan Pangasinan Tausug Waray Aklanon Ibanag Karay-a language Central Bikol Maguindanao Surigaonon Gaddang Romblomanon Cuyonon Yakan Maranao Bantoanon language Itawis Chavacano Ivatan Sambal And i speak Cebuano, Tagalog and English lol i mixed then together if i talk to someone

[@xxlian_]

@@zenithchan1646 same (hiligaynon, tagalog and english)😆

[@theramendutchman]

@@zenithchan1646 Sambal omg that's a food paste here *EDIT* I should probs clarify it's an Indonesian thing; it's mostly ground chillis and I use it to set my roommates orally on fire

[@missesdimplez]

@@zenithchan1646 hi, I’m genuinely asking… do cebuanos not call it bisaya? is that also a name of a language?

[@MisterrNZ]

*"It's a matter of politics"* Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian: "Well yes, but actually no"

[@magnajota4341]

Yeah stop pretending they are different languages.

[@DjoleeG]

@@magnajota4341 well yes they are different languages.. at least 2-3% different !! The rest 97-98% are same xD

[@dennynikaj]

Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Croatian are the same.

[@MisterrNZ]

@@dennynikaj yeah well try telling some people that...

[@quakeknight9680]

Only diffrence is that Serbs say "bre", Croats have a dialect very very infuenced by Italian.

[@elly.b]

In my country, Tanzania we have over 127 tribes which all speak their own tribal languages but when need arises we all communicate in our national language Swahili, but because the tribal languages are the first/mother tongues to all children, this goes on to affect the accent in which they speak the Swahili language, so you can know someone's tribe or region of origin by listening to their accent as they speak Swahili. Fact: with more than 120 tribes with different languages, Tanzania 🇹🇿 is still one of the most peaceful Nations in Africa and the world!

[@elly.b]

@@jellyfish-- Thanks

[@JessyingAround]

Props to the animator(s) for doing such an amazing job!😯

[@1.4142]

Accents are also closely correlated with geography. There is a hypothesis that people at higher altitudes use more ejective consonants in order to conserve water vapor and because it is easier with thinner air.

[@Sebasco7]

Never heard about this, but It is the most interesting thing I read today. thanks for sharing.

[@basimaman756]

That is a just ridiculous suggestion. Might be true but doesn’t seem likely.

[@wancheng89]

Wah, I’m so proud that Malaysian English made it into a TedEd video 😃 Our language is highly contextual. If someone asks how’s your food, the answer “ok la” could mean different thing based on the speakers tone of voice, facial expression etc. Not to mention other sounds we add into sentences like ok lo, ok ma, ok kut, ok meh. And sentences that don’t follow the correct structures because we translate from our respective mother tongue, and we often borrow words from other language. Haha, I love our unique multicultural influence on language. You can’t really find this anywhere else. ❤️🇲🇾

[@fwoop4848]

In India we borrow from other languages too! :D Like infamous Hinglish, a combination of Hindi and English. I find myself doing this too, I speak Telugu, a regional language in India and when I can’t find/remember the right word in Telugu but remember it English I just add that word in. This is mostly the younger generation who adds in English words when we speak our native language, the older generation doesn’t really do that

[@Scott-wd1cq]

I'm studying a masters in translation studies, and I really needed a reminder of why I love what I'm doing. Thank you so much TED-Ed

[@AleksaShule]

"I speak 4 languages.... Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin." -Right... about that....

[@vladimirvladoradomirovic]

How to create Ex - Yugoslavian languages: 1) Use existing language 2) Add some words connected to locals 3) Call it new language

[@CDexie]

So, can people from all these nationalities understand each other fairly well?

[@skenderbegshala3247]

@@CDexie perfectly

[@vladimirvladoradomirovic]

@@CDexie Yes + Slovenian and Macedonian about 80%, so yes, I can speak 6 languages

[@kalki3060]

and english!

[@SuperibyP]

Interesting, but arguably Arabic has even more interesting diversity in varieties, and a standardized form that isn't linked to any one specific Arabic speaking country, and it would have been cool to see that too. Try speaking standard Arabic to an Egyptian (particularly one that has not attended higher education) and you will *struggle*. Individual varieties in Arabic are often associated with the cultural contribution of the originating country to the Arab sphere, such that Egyptian Arabic is almost considered the defacto variety in showbiz, particularly in soap-operas. Sudanese Arabic is one of the most linguistically ancient forms of Arabic, despite it being in North Africa, and not in the Hijaz or Gulf regions.

[@edi9892]

I once heard an Arabic line in an English song and asked a Marocoan and she had no clue, but another Arab understood it with ease...

[@j7055]

Egyptian here! Standard Arabic is pretty easy to me, but if you speak in the Moroccan or Saudi Arabian/gulf dialect to me I might cry

[@br19_yt]

@@j7055 مافيه شيء اسمه لهجة سعودية، السعودية لوحدها فيها اكثر من لهجة 😂، لكن الغريب توقعت لهجاتنا السعودية سهلة لانها قريبة جدا من الفصحى 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@sparagnino]

A standard Italian was a must have, besides Mussolini. A big help came from the rise of the TV in the 60s. Dialects are so different that people can't understand each other if they come from different regions... sometimes even cities in the same region! A politician from 1860 (when Italy unified) wrote: "We have made Italy. Now we must make Italians." We are still working on it :D

[@jacopofolin6400]

True but we have to no kill the dialects i love them, especialy venetian and sardo

[@gazibizi9504]

@@jacopofolin6400 it's a lost attempt. Languages die all the time, and this is exactly how it happens. Vulgar Latin for example absorbed all the Italic languages in Italy.

[@julianfejzo4829]

As someone who grew up in Italy I really despise the term dialect, some of these varieties are as distant from Italian as Portuguese or Spanish, heck Piedmontese and Emilian have even more in common with Occitan and French than Italian (since they are Gallo-Italic). Italian varieties are no less important than standard and to do this people should stop seeing them as just dialects in the first place.

[@JoaoL0pes]

@@julianfejzo4829 you probably understand more of Portuguese and Spanish than some of those crazy dialets, like Bergamasco

[@Neyobe]

Agreed with the Chinese dialects one! It bothers me so much how just because there is the same writing system, they’re considered the same language. Each province has it’s own dialect and depending on the region, shanghainese, tianjinese, hainanese, taiwanese, cantonese, and hundreds more are completely unintelligible from each other

[@patrick8358]

Indistinguishable means that you cannot tell them apart.

[@geoffroi-le-Hook]

The Chinese programming on a Chicago television station was in Cantonese with Mandarin subtitles or the other way around

[@fabienneselinger3899]

Great video as always :) I come from Austria which has a lot of variants of german. Mine can be very hard to understand sometimes since it derived from alemannic and has a lot of abbreviations and unique vocabulary. It's amazing how different language, rituals and culture can be, even within the same country.

[@klug_d]

A Vorarlberger bist? 😁 Eich versteht ma echt schwa!

[@fabienneselinger3899]

@@klug_d Haha genau so isch as :D

[@karrotizhealthy]

Everything I’ve learned from this channel is that whenever you have a weird shower thought then They will answer them all for you

[@octobixer]

I can't believe they talked about multiple dialects without mentioning one of the stranger examples like arabic which has a dialect seen as better than all the other ones but is not spoken as a home language anywhere

[@tre-moon-dous6122]

Americans

[@micayahritchie7158]

That's not weird that weird. It used to exist with Latin too

[@adityaraman8901]

Thats called a diaglossia if im not wrong. Tamil has 3 infact. (Old, High, and Local)

[@octobixer]

@@adityaraman8901 that’s cool I didn’t know that

[@octobixer]

@@micayahritchie7158 The difference between this and Latin is that the language spoken at home is not viewed as vulgar but a modern equivalent given the colonisation and native influences put on the different dialects for example Egypt has french English and Coptic influences on it while Morocco has Berber/amazigh and french with some Spanish as well influence. While the higher dialect comes from the Koran and the Arabic spoken in the Saudi during the time of Muhammad sws with updated vocabulary to accommodate new concepts and inventions. This is why no matter how much outside influence there is Arabic stays as one language rather than splitting off into multiple like what happened to Latin and the Romance languages

[@chengyiq3066]

4:04 My ears perked up when TedEd mentioned Malaysia!!

[@tingting6328]

Mine too

[@GreatKeny]

I am a Wu-Chinese speaker (Shanghainese) and growing up we were not allowed to speak our native tongue back in schools. They put "please speak Mandarin" stickers everywhere. Nowadays, very few kids can speak fluent Wu-Chinese anymore, at least not in Shanghai. It is also very sad that Wu-Chinese does not get much recognition outside China even though there are more native speakers of Wu-Chinese than Cantonese.

[@rickseiden1]

For a very long time the phrase, "Do the needful." that my co-workers would use drove me crazy. "Needful" isn't a word, I would think. After many years, it suddenly hit me, it is a word. It's not a word in American English, but it is a word in Indian English. India was, of course, under English rule for a long time, and spoke English along with their native language, such as Hindi. The English people from India speak today is no less valid a "variety" than the language people in America speak. I just didn't think about or realize that there would be a variety of English from India.

[@thisisfine4093]

Oh hey, I saw you on Soph’s notes! Hello again, Mr Seiden. And that fact is pretty cool.

[@adityaraman8901]

There are different varities of English spoken in India. An Indian can easily spot the difference.

[@angelikaskoroszyn8495]

From a non-native speaker perspective "needful" sound like an old english, forgotten word It sounds natural in a way. Handful ~> needful. Similar logic

[@rickseiden1]

@@thisisfine4093 Soph rocks!

[@rickseiden1]

@@adityaraman8901 I've been in the room with some folks from India, but not part of the conversation, and they started with what they called Hinglish, alternating between words in English and words in Hindi in the same sentence.

[@christykreme98]

I wish this video was out when I was still taking Sociolinguistics class. Nevertheless, I hope my professor in that class would see this and use the video to teach his students soon :)

[@jonnyq8191]

Hey lol

[@rohan34]

This is the best video that I have seen. It is great to see a properly made authentic video. I'm a linguistic student and this video just speaks my mind.

[@micow9951]

The end of this video out a smile on my face , i love this particular speaker he has such a beautiful speaking voice

[@generalfang1537]

Tfw Malaysia English was mentioned. Forever proud of mine language, it do be making me blush leh

[@Broccoli75]

Cringe

[@lipikax]

Shout out to the graphic designer and the animation artist🙌🏻

[@Leen7293]

I got chills watching this. The animation is beautiful and the sounds are melodious and the content is accurate and informative.

[@madisonlibby7424]

Wow. This video was masterfully done. The info, visuals, and especially the music were superb!

[@--Paws--]

To me, this video is something I need. Sometimes the meaning of these two words are what confuses me the most. The concept of their differences is not hard to understand yet still can mix me up when I use either words in a sentence. Language and dialect become axioms that at times can become the same meaning on one hand but become two different things in another.

[@LoiKimWei3]

I'm proud that Malaysian English is mention in the video.

[@altrag3748]

Man I love the visualisation and (I’m not sure what to call it, just a way of showing something through sounds rather than it’s normal medium) they use for the concept of different languages. Like the cool shapes and colours and the funky bass when someone was talking.

[@aberrantartist]

Can we talk about how smooth that transition at 1:31 is? Super creative and fluid. Also thank you Ted Ed for another interesting video.

[@sandhyakhonde5237]

What makes TED-ED, TED-ED?

[@lateledescaraibes7760]

Me

[@tabithaedwards1205]

TED

[@light-gz2fx]

So basically every dialect is mirror of past of that group of people who use it. BTW ted ed animation is ❤️

[@IrresistibleWitch]

No.

[@tragicevans4157]

Yes colonisation and politics fvcked up them all.

[@kellydalstok8900]

Does that mean that the history of people from the Dutch province of Limburg is one of being perpetually drunk? Because that’s how they sound.

[@welcometotheinternet574]

Another thing to keep in mind is that “standard” varieties are used as the way of teaching others the lenguage. For instance, if you wanted to learn Spanish, you would either go for either standard Spain Spanish (like central area) or Mexican Standard (México DF area). This can lead to some confusion and problems once you step outside of this areas. Like, if you came to Andalucía, just like 2-3 hours away from Madrid by train, you would almost always have problems understanding people, just because we are so different from the “Standard” version

[@mbbbits4847]

One of the most interesting topics!! Thank you again so much! 😊

[@angrynoodletwentyfive6463]

African American dialect english is atleast similar enough to other forms of english that you can for the most part perfectly understand what the other is saying in a conversation.

[@surajitmondal823]

As an indian I feel lucky that our languages aren’t considered as dialects of some uniform Indian language . Although india have only 22 official language, but other unofficial ones are also considered as languages not dialects. Only those are considered as dialects which are not independent. There are also 10+ independent languages which should also be made official.

[@kimmycassie]

I really love when the shapes and animation near the end!! The colors used were so pretty

[@kimmycassie]

Also as someone who lives in a country with dozens of languages, I wish that other people will consider my mother tongue as a language and not just a dialect.

[@angelaliu3237]

I love this video's video and sound design! It gives off such a lovely mood :))

[@tree.6653]

Imagine having that many shower thoughts

[@Ascend777]

I can't believe I need a crowd-funded organization to teach me this. Public school in the US fails so badly.

[@plancton9919]

On this specific topic it seems logical in the sense that school is the most powerful institution permitting a state to establish a variety as an official "language". They tend to teach the "right way" to talk and write, that's why they're so oblivious about linguistic facts

[@RoyalReyna]

Right? Lol. Most Americans think English only has 3 verb tenses. All the schools really care about is teaching us to read and write and follow directions without question. They only care about test scores

[@sgriggl]

@@plancton9919 Yes.

[@LastPersephone]

Ted ed animation is always so pleasing…❤️

[@antoniaalabama2234]

I'm always so impressed by the animations

[@belle_pomme]

Fun fact : Standard Malay and Indonesian are actually standardized forms of the same dialect (Johor-Riau Malay)

[@arsyapermana1]

Yep, the Indonesian one are influenced more by javanese language and sanskrit, while Malaysian malay are influenced more by arabic

[@belle_pomme]

@@arsyapermana1 yup, Indonesian has more language sources to borrow from since they always adapt the use of words from regional languages like Javanese, Sundanese, etc

[@geoffroi-le-Hook]

Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu

[@gogakushayemi]

I live in Japan and years back I asked a Chinese friend (in Japanese) what dialect she spoke and she looked at me like I was stark raving mad. Now, I speak a little Chinese and I realise that when you say "Chinese" in Chinese, it only means Mandarin. No one says "Chinese" and means Taiwanese or Cantonese or Shanghainese. So, in the case of China, the politics that caused all the mutually unintelligible dialects to be referred to as a single language are completely external.

[@danielc7921]

This was an informative video,👍👍, good job Ted-Ed

[@soulpancake1018]

This video’s visuals were really enjoyable, aswell as the music.

[@user-ei6ew5uq8z]

Whether it's standard or dialects, I think all language have their own charm!

[@benghaz7930]

I feel proud bcuz Malaysian English is mentioned

[@acey850]

Sound person did a fantastic job bringing the narration and animation to newheights. Bravo 👏👏👏

[@francytjd3996]

In Italy a huge factor that helped speed up language standardization was the introduction to television And there are so many dialects and accents and the difference between north and south is still incredibly obvious, it’s also pretty much impossible to not know a dialect or at least not come across one lol

[@Mrnoddingdonkey]

You didn’t really answer the titles question

[@saggitarius6155]

Love the quote :" A language is a dialect with an army and a navy"! Still, the language needs to be coded: Literary heritage written in that language, written script (alphabet), dictionaries, etc. One can't get a language from the Amazon rain forests, give them an army and a navy and their vernacular becomes the official LANGUAGE.

[@SergioLongoni]

yet there are a lot of dialects with a huge oral and written heritage such as the Italian's dialects that are not official because they don't have an army and a navy. And they are still spoken by a lot of people, and often times used in all kinds of informal comunication

[@internetsnacks150]

@@SergioLongoni Indeed. But it's always a good thing to settle a consensus on one of the existing languages, and move on to more practical things. In Nigeria, there are hundreds of tribes with their respective languages, pride and self-importance. When the country obtained its independence from the British, choosing one of the local languages was like cracking a match inside a barrel of gunpowder. The wise thing to do was to keep the colonizer's language as the official one and spare the country from a civil war.

[@redcrown5070]

Thanks for covering our language Ted ED. I also add that the first writers of italian languages were Boccaccio and Petrarch, with the first used as an example for formal communication and the latter for poetry

[@jessical4866]

My mom is from Singapore and speaks Fukian. I have an aunt who speaks Taiwanese. Despite the geographical differences, they can understand each other just fine and it’s incredible.

[@akhandpathi7461]

4:17 reminded me of Garnt saying "Cultural Cross-Pollination" 😂

[@ikkedansk]

no, us scandinavians has great difficulties understanding each other, as only ca 40% of our words are sorta similar, so we often speak english to each other

[@readisgooddewaterkant7890]

Hur menar du?

[@ikkedansk]

@@readisgooddewaterkant7890 hvad mener du?!?!

[@ikkedansk]

@@readisgooddewaterkant7890 tror det er de færreste danskere der ved hvad en IGELKOTT er for noget

[@readisgooddewaterkant7890]

@@ikkedansk jag håller med. Danskarna kan icke prata :)

[@clockbeat]

In math class literally 3 hours ago during a short pause we briefly talked about languages/dialects that we spoke, I get home and this vid uploaded 5 hours ago gets recommended. nice

[@cristybello]

I am obsessed with languages! I find the diversity of them so intriguingly fascinating! I should study linguistics :) Great video! TED should become an Open University!

[@denifnaf5874]

Fun fact: lenin spoke english in an irish accent

[@MonsterIsABlock]

A language is a language *Together we can stop this....*

[@paleoph6168]

Please spread the word. Thank you for your attention.

[@segmentsAndCurves]

Together we can what?

[@RafaelCardoso299]

Always learn a lot with your videos ! You guys rock !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@chocolatechick729]

I love the animations, and the I formation ofcourse . As a major in communications I am looking forward to learning more out language.

[@jolene648]

When your Malaysian English is known as Manglish, is it short for Malaysian-English? No, it’s actually Mangled-English T-T

[@jolene648]

@Murph the Martian Mustelid our grammar be out here living on a different plane of reality lol

[@nallyaaaaaa]

you do be speaking facts here lol

[@annoyedkaren6726]

I’m sorry do you speak English or truth

[@margustoo]

An interesting example is in Estonia. There is a group of dialects/languages or a language called Southern Estonian. It can be considered ether part of Estonian, a separate language or a language/dialect group made out of Võro, Tarto and Mulgi languages/dialects. There is also Seto language or dialect that some consider it to be part of Võro and some consider it to be a separate language/dialect. It's a mess. Nowadays most commonly all four (Tarto, Mulgi, Võro and Seto) are considered to be separate languages..

[@pocarski]

Not Estonian, but have been living in Tartu for the past couple years. I can feel the difference between the local language and standard Estonian, but it's mostly minor things like vowels getting rounded towards "o". The announcer voice in public transport has a strong local accent, and pronounces "õ" like "o", and words like "kaks" sound more like "koks". So far I've been able to get by with my less-than-stellar knowledge of the standard language, so I don't see any real reason to separate the varieties if they're all mutually intelligible.

[@margustoo]

@@pocarski Language/dialect of Tarto doesn't have many speakers left. It's basically dead already. What you heard were remnants of that.. at best a local accent. Properly spoken Southern Estonian (especially Võro and Seto) is very different from Estonian language. They have vastly different vocabulary (although many native Estonians know most of those words as synonyms), different language rules (for example they have vowel harmony like they have in Finnish but not in Estonian itself) and even a different alphabet (it is also based on Latin alphabet, but it has some features that main Estonian alphabet doesn't have.. like for example q being a glottal stop or y used as a vowel that is in between i and õ)

[@just_in_key]

The animation is so ASTONISHING

[@xaviermantha63]

Thanks for the video.

[@papazataklaattiranimam]

Arabic is more than one language also not only one

[@angelikaskoroszyn8495]

There's also another aspect worth mentioning - exposition to other languages. Many Polish people living near southern border can easily understand Czech language. Why? Because they often interact with our neighbours. For me it would be difficult. Sooner I will be able to speak freely with Ukrainians than Czechs bc of their growing immigrant population

[@fm-gm6hv]

beautiful and insightful video

[@mavis9262]

SUPERB Video! I happened to wonder about this all the time, especially in a country with thousands of varieties and history of colonialism from different origins (Philippines); about what makes a form of communication be considered as a language.

[@_fedmar_]

Ironically, Florentine dialect in modern times is so terrible to hear that it's infuriating.

[@Laittth]

It was such a missed opportunity not using Arabic as an example

[@SuperibyP]

Agreed!

[@badidea932]

the animation makes these videos even better

[@rlolaislijhtw]

The idea of gatekeeping is so interesting, I recognise it in myself and others I know right to this very day. For instance, my mother hates it when people say 'youse' instead of 'you', but that term and many like it form a part of an English variety that's evolving away from the 'Queen's English' that we learn in schools.

[@henrywong2725]

*insert language is just a dialect with an army and navy quote here

[@user-yd3zv2bl1s]

Thanks Mr Hilpert for the explanation. I've no questions for the variations of English. But, Cantonese is a dialect? Probably, because most of the linguists suggest that's a dialect so it considered as dialect. Furthermore the policy of China doesn't allow more than one language other than Mandarin, that's mean other than Mandarin it would be automatically DIALECT.

[@incarnation151]

Mandarin itself is a dialect or a variety of the Chinese language, literally means "the language of officials" in Chinese because it was the language spoken by officials in court during Ming and Qing dynasty, sometimes Mandarin can simply be referred to as "northern speech". The official language in China is called "common speech" which is the standardized Mandarin which almost no one in China actually speaks, besides news anchors, everyone speaks with some sort of accents. It is important to know that Mandarin has a lot of varieties itself and shouldn't be confused with standardized Mandarin.

[@rifkyakh]

thanks for this knowledge

[@av-ic3ts]

this was lovely!

[@Storm0Castle]

Just as how the malay language is now divided into bahasa malaysia and bahasa indonesia

[@maryocecilyo3372]

Sim

[@AA-bb9rb]

Yup. Basically the same.

[@StrangeDad]

Swedes, Norwegians and Danes: Swede: Hello! How are you? Norwegian: I'm fine! Lovely day we're having! Dane: Kamulåså! Swede and Norwegian: ...

[@jaehaerys6609]

FLIMSEDÅ

[@danybuyung7399]

I subscribed prof hilpert channel. The content os refreshing for linguistic student

[@lolake7594]

I know this is irrelevant, but I always love the different animation styles in these videos

[@congiesuzuki2589]

A language is something that you can understand, its something where you can communicate back to one and another. Most languages were created by politics and society so basically most languages are made up by society. I speak this language called Angeleme. I created it by myself it helps me to understand myself alot better, I've been teaching my boyfriend my language so that he can speak it back to me so that me and him can have full on conversations.

[@theramendutchman]

Okay that's actually wonderful and making me smile

[@italktoomuch6442]

One of my favourite expressions: "A language is a dialect with an army."

[@maihuongdang3663]

the animation is really something else!

[@hugo54758]

Martin Hilpert is a great linguist, good job on hiring him!