(THE CONVERSATION) Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the number of people studying Ukrainian on Duolingo, a language-learning site and mobile app, has increased by more than 500%.

Most people who dabble in Ukrainian are probably unaware that there is a long-standing controversy over this particular form of speech. One side sees Russians and Ukrainians as “one people”, and the other doesn’t.

The former claim that Ukrainian is just a dialect of Russian, while the latter argue that it is a separate language. Who is right ?

Unfortunately, there is no clear answer. The difference between a language and a dialect depends on who you ask.

The linguistic angle

Many linguists base their determination of language or dialect on whether the forms of speech are mutually intelligible. Simply put, if two people speak different dialects of the same language, they can probably understand each other. However, if two people speak different languages, they probably won’t be able to understand each other.

According to this definition, Czech and Slovak could be considered as dialects of the same language. The same goes for Indonesian and Malay.

Some spoken forms sound very different when pen is put on paper. For example, Serbian is written with a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet, like Russian, while Croatian uses a form of the Latin alphabet, like English. Nevertheless, many linguists would consider Serbian and Croatian to be dialects of the same language, since it is the comprehensibility of the spoken forms that generally matters.

Humans have been talking for a very long time, but we’ve only been writing things down for a few millennia. Moreover, of the approximately 7,000 known living languages, only about 4,000 have a writing system.

The policy says something different

For political scientists, the difference between a language and a dialect does not lie in mutual intelligibility, but rather in politics. For example, Hindi and Urdu are separate languages ​​because the governments of India and Pakistan say they are, even though the colloquially spoken forms of the two varieties are surprisingly similar.

Max Weinreich, a Yiddish scholar, popularized the idea that “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy”. In other words, a government can promote the idea that a dialect is a distinct language even if not in linguistic terms.

Moldova, for example, maintains that Moldovan is a distinct language, even though it is almost identical to Romanian. Although Romania was concerned about this language brand change, according to Article 13 of the Moldovan Constitution, the official language of the country is Moldovan and not Romanian. Thus, the two are separate languages ​​– at least politically.

Granting official status to a particular spoken form not only encourages its use in government, including the courts, but it also usually means that a spoken form will be taught in schools, thereby ensuring that future generations share a common language – even if it was invented. for nationalist purposes.

Just as a dialect with an army and a navy can be considered its own language, a language with an army and a navy can call other languages ​​just dialects. For example, the official language of the People’s Republic of China is Standard Chinese, which is often abbreviated simply to “Chinese” and is sometimes – controversially – referred to as Mandarin. However, it is not the only form of speech that can be heard across the country.

Cantonese is widely spoken in and around Hong Kong, but is often treated as a dialect of “Chinese”. However, spoken Mandarin and Cantonese are not mutually intelligible. As such, in linguistic terms, these two forms of speech would not be considered dialects of a single language, but rather distinct languages.

In order to strengthen the power of the central government against separatist sentiment, the Chinese government has long promoted a language unification program. The intention is both to create a common means of communication for the country, but also to minimize the linguistic and cultural differences that exist between the different communities. To help spread the adoption of Standard Chinese, as defined by the government, television and radio professionals are subject to strict requirements and can even be fined for using incorrect pronunciation.

Throughout China, local speech forms are being phased out as mediums of instruction in schools in favor of Mandarin. Many of these forms are now in decline and some are at risk of extinction. Such efforts do not necessarily mean that these types of speech are not “true languages” in the linguistic sense.

But politically, the difference between a language and a dialect is what China says it is. This is even reflected internationally, as many organizations, such as the United Nations, recognize “Chinese” as the standardized form of speech promoted by the Chinese government.

resolve the conflict

So, is Ukrainian a dialect of Russian or a separate language? Linguistically, Ukrainian and Russian are about as different as French and Portuguese. Although French and Portuguese both descend from Latin, they have now diverged enough to make understanding each other difficult. Likewise, while Ukrainian and Russian share a common ancestor, their current spoken forms are now sufficiently different that there are strong linguistic arguments for them to be considered separate languages.

Politically, however, whether Ukrainian is a dialect or a language will partly depend on the end of the war. If Ukraine remains an independent country that considers Ukrainian as a separate language, it is a separate language.

If, however, Russia ends up controlling all of Ukraine, thus completing the process it began in 2014 with its annexation of Crimea, then Russia could promote the idea that Ukrainian is not just a dialect of Russian, to reinforce Ukraine’s diminished status as part of Russia.

In short, not only the territorial integrity of Ukraine is threatened, but also the independence of a unique and distinct cultural community.

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/is-ukrainian-a-language-or-a-dialect-that-depends-on-whom-you-ask-and-how-the-war-ends – 180849.