By: Dialects, standard languages and education - Ute's International Lounge

Dialects, standard languages and education - Ute's International Lounge — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 08:56:23 +0000

[…] Dialects and regional variants preserve the unique cultural elements of a given place and region. Knowing a dialect or regional variant means that we know more of the roots, the history, the "soul" of a region, a local society. Some assume that individual dialects divide people, but when approached in a way that instead of separating them, tries to find unities instead, we can discover the unique qualities of a region expressed through the dialect. Each dialect has a unique pronunciation and helps give a local culture an identity. What some people find difficult is when we can't translate terms into the standard variant of the language or if there are no equivalents in other dialects. Every translator knows that languages can not be translated one-on-one, there is no perfect equivalent for each word across languages. I consider every dialect like a language – no hierarchy involved or negative/positive judgment about what dialect is "better" or "more prestigious". The mere fact that people speak the particular dialect is reason enough to respect and appreciate it, and understanding is only a natural consequence of wanting to get to know the person or the group. When learning languages, we can experience deeper understanding when we explore its dialects and regional variants. Knowing that in Northern Germany, the term "moin" is used to greet each other at any time, not only in the morning (moin = "morning"), is important for us when we live in that region, but also when our new colleague in Singapore comes from that region and we want to make him feel a bit more welcome. Uniqueness of dialects provides them a sense of independence and when we speak a certain dialect we can take pride in it, we enjoy defending and explaining our particular way of pronouncing or phrasing to others. Differences enhance cultural diversity and increase independence, and without diversity, our world would not progress. Therefore, our world needs dialects and individual expression to keep cultures alive for future generations. When transmitting our dialects to our children we transmit the feeling of belonging, or uniqueness and pride. I know that my children feel proud to be able to speak and understand different variants of Swiss-German dialect. […]

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By: Dialects, standard languages and education - Ute's International Lounge