Language vs Dialect

A aft aksed question is "Whit differ ir de atween a language an a dialect?" Hit's no sae aisy tae say wan wye or da tidder. Linguistically it boils doon tae da scael o mutual intelligibility: at ee end o da scael aabody understaands aathin (spaek da sam language), an at da tidder naebody understaands onythin (spaek different languages), an dialects faa somewhaar in-atween. But mutually intelligible varieties can be naemed different languages (laek St. Swedish an St. Norwegian, or laek Dutch an Low German). So a aft quoted answer wid be "A language is a dialect wi a airmy an a navy", becis it boils doon tae politics.

Da twa main languages spoken athin Shetland is Shaetlan an English. De ir mair differ linguistically atween da twa o dem as de ir atween Dutch an Low German, or St. Swedish an St. Norwegian. In fact dey even hae different ancestors: Shaetlan descends fae Norn an Scots, wi a lok o influence fae da Low Germanic languages. Shaetlan is affen referred tae as jüst "dialect", an English is affen spokken aboot as bein "proper" or "right". Dis isna right linguistically or historically: Shaetlan is nae mair a dialect o English as English is a dialect o Shaetlan, an English isna ony mair linguistically "proper" or "right" as Shaetlan.

Da sayeen "A language is a dialect wi a airmy an a navy" ("אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמיי און פֿלאָט / A shprakh iz a dialect mit an army un flot") wis first seid by a anonymous student tae Max Weinreich in his coorse "Problems idda history o da Yiddish language". Max Weinreich brocht it tae da wirld in 1945 in a article published athin da journal Yivo-bletter.