Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 January 31

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January 31

Chakma language and Chittagonian dialect

Is the spoken Chakma language mutually intelligible with the Chittagonian language ? 45.74.75.191 (talk) 05:39, 31 January 2021 (UTC)

The opening paragraph of the first's article states that it "has common features with other languages in the region like the Chittagonian dialect of Bengali language, . . ." [my italics]. In linguistic terminology, merely having common features is not nearly enough to make two languages mutually intelligible: if these two were, I would expect the article to use different terminology, and to make reference to the fact. However, a definitive answer will need the knowledge of someone familiar with both languages, or a scholar of linguistics able to provide appropriate evidence: perhaps @AnonMoos: can help? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.40.9 (talk) 09:14, 2 February 2021 (UTC).

I really don't know more than what's in Ethnologue, which states that Chakma/Takam had about 513,000 speakers in 1988, while Chittagonian is only listed as "possible dialect of Southeastern Bengali"... AnonMoos (talk) 10:53, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

It's also important to note the concept of the dialect continuum, which is sort of the "species problem" of linguistics. Dialects tend to vary gradually over time and space, and there is no hard line to be drawn here. I have no exact knowledge of the two languages in question, but there's a distinct possibility that they belong to a continuum of dialects where the endpoints of the continuum are NOT mutually intelligible, but where a chain of mutually intelligible dialects exist between them; that sort of thing happens a lot. --Jayron32 12:57, 2 February 2021 (UTC)