A language is a dialect with an army and navy

"A language is a dialect with an army and navy" is a description of the distinction between dialect and language. It points out the influence that political conditions can have over a community's perception of the status of a language or dialect. The description was popularized by the Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich, who heard it from a member of the audience at one of his lectures.

Contents 1 Weinreich 2 Other possible originators 3 Relevance to Yiddish 4 Variants 5 Weinreich's Yiddish-language text 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading

Weinreich

This statement is commonly attributed to one of the leading figures in modern Yiddish linguistics, Max Weinreich, who expressed it in Yiddish:

אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמיי און פֿלאָט

(a shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot). The earliest known published source is Weinreich's article Der YIVO un di problemen fun undzer tsayt (דער ייִוואָ און די פּראָבלעמען פֿון אונדזער צײַט "The YIVO Faces the Post-War World" literally: "The YIVO and the problems of our time."), originally presented as a speech at the Annual YIVO (then known as the Yiddish Scientific Institute) Conference on 5 January 1945. Weinreich did not give an English version.^[1]

Weinreich presents this statement as a remark of an auditor at a lecture series given between 13 December 1943 and 12 June 1944:^[2]

...A teacher at a Bronx high school once appeared among the auditors. He had come to America as a child and the entire time had never heard that Yiddish had a history and could also serve for higher matters.... Once after a lecture he approached me and asked, 'What is the difference between a dialect and language?' I thought that the maskilic contempt had affected him, and tried to lead him to the right path, but he interrupted me: 'I know that, but I will give you a better definition. A language is a dialect with an army and navy.' From that very time I made sure to remember that I must convey this wonderful formulation of the social plight of Yiddish to a large audience.

Other possible originators

The sociolinguist and Yiddish scholar Joshua Fishman suggested that he might have been the auditor at the Weinreich lecture, and has subsequently been cited as the originator of the army-navy statement in several references. However, Fishman was assuming that the exchange took place at a conference in 1967, more than twenty years later than the YIVO lecture (1945)^[3] and in any case does not fit Weinreich's description.

Some scholars believe that Antoine Meillet had earlier said that a language is a dialect with an army, but there is no contemporary documentation of this.^[4]

Jean Laponce has suggested that Hubert Lyautey (1854–1934) may be the originator of the phrase at a meeting of the Académie française.^[5] But again there is no good evidence for this.

Other suggested sources post-date the Weinreich publication.

Relevance to Yiddish

Weinreich observed that the phrase is a "wonderful expression of the social plight of Yiddish". In his lecture, he discusses not just linguistic, but also broader notions of "yidishkeyt" (ייִדישקייט – lit. Jewishness).

Variants

Randolph Quirk adapted the definition to "A language is a dialect with an army and a flag" (adding a defense policy and a national airline).^[6]

Weinreich's Yiddish-language text

Here is the passage from the 1945 text in the original Yiddish, followed by a romanized transliteration:

Far a yorn hobn mir in der d[okto]r Tsemakh Shabad-aspirantur gehat a kurs fun tsvantsik lektsyes oyf der teme, "problemen in der geshikhte fun der yidisher shprakh". Tsvishn di tsuherers iz eyn mol oykh arayngefaln a lerer fun a bronkser hayskul. Er iz gekumen keyn amerike vi a kind un hot far der gantser tsayt keyn mol nit gehert, az yidish hot a geshikhte un ken dinen far hekhere inyonem oykh. Vi azoy er iz fun der aspirantur fun YIVO gevoyr gevorn veys ikh nit, nor fun yemolt on hot er shoyn genumen kumen. Eyn mol nokh a lektsye geyt er tsu tsu mir un fregt, "Vos iz der khilek fun a dialekt biz a shprakh?" Ikh hob gemeynt, az es ruft zikh im der maskilisher bitl, un ikh hob im gepruvt aroyffirn afn rikhtikn veg, nor er hot mikh ibergerisn "Dos veys ikh, ober ikh vel aykh gebn a besere definitsye. A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot." Ikh hob zikh yemolt bald fargedenkt, az di dozike vunderlekhe formulirung fun der sotsyaler marokhe fun yidish muz ikh brengen tsu a groysn oylem.

See also

• Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache and Dachsprache for discussion of the relations among language varieties, including languages and dialects
• Dialect continuum
• Diglossia
• Varieties of Chinese

References

Further reading

• John Earl Joseph (2004). Language and identity: national, ethnic, religious. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780333997529. 
• Robert McColl Millar (2005). Language, nation and power: an introduction. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403939715. 
• John Edwards (2009). Language and identity: an introduction. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521696029.