Talk:Language and dialect

Why was this quote on a page called "language and dialect"? Shouldn't we write our own entry about what a dialect is, and would it not be better to put that under dialect?

"La linguistica odierna sa che lo statuto di lingua non viene determinato soltanto da criteri linguistici, bensì è anche il risultato di uno sviluppo storico e politico. Il romancio si è imposto in diversi campi come lingua scritta, diventando così, malgrado una parentela a volte stretta con i dialetti lombardi alpini, una lingua a sé stante." (G 13)

Dialect is not a linguistic term: rather, dialects are called dialects because they are NOT (or not recognized as) literary languages, because they are not standardized, because the speakers of the given language do not have a state of their own, because their language lacks prestige etc. In other words, it is sociolinguistic criteria that makes people decide what a dialect and what a language is.

Gross, Manfred, Bernard Cathomas e Jean-Jacques Furer. 1996. RETOROMANCIO Facts & Figures Coira: Lia Rumantscha. (=G)