A Language Is a Dialect with an Army and a Navy

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'A language is a dialect with an army and a navy'. Is this true, and what are the consequences? The quote 'A language is a dialect with an army and a navy' refers to that social and political conditions can influence the perception of status of a language or dialect. This is often true as the distinction between language and dialect can be politically motivated. A nation has the need to establish their official languages, and by doing so, they would disregard the rest of the minority languages, which are then reduced to the status as dialects. This eventually would lead to reduction of usage and thus, future generations would have little or no knowledge of the language. Taking reference from Singapore, which has four decreed official languages; English, Mandarin Chinese, Bahasa Malay, and Tamil. English, a language left by the British colony, is chosen as it brings economic and financial benefits, given that it is an international language. The other three languages were chosen based on the three main racial groups in Singapore, composing of the Chinese, Malays, and Indians. In the early years before the any language policies was set, people in Singapore spoke a variety of languages. The policy of bilingualism is introduced whereby students in government-led schools studied two languages, English, and their mother tongue language. Various campaigns were instilled to further aid the importance of learning English and Mother Tongue language. Non-Mandarin Chinese languages such as Hokkien, Cantonese and Hainanese are then reduced to being classified as ‘dialects’, when they are in fact languages. In addition to that, the government also regulates the use of ‘dialects’ in media and promotes that Chinese should learn to speak Mandarin Chinese. From my personal observation, such policies restrict usage of minority languages, which would eventually lead to reduction
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