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This is a circular argument. English is one language because it is one language. Spanish and Portuguese are two languages because they are two languages.

eridius 9y ago
No. English is one language because the entire world considers it to be one language. Spanish and Portuguese are two languages because the entire world considers it to be two languages.
- weberc2 9y ago
  That's still circular...
  - eridius 9y ago
    No it's not. What defines a language? In the absence of context, I can't give you criteria for where the line is between a language or a dialect. But that doesn't matter, because the most important definition for "what's a language vs a dialect" is "how is it perceived by the world?". If the entire world thinks that Spanish and Portuguese are different languages, then they're different languages. It's that simple. This isn't circular because I'm not saying "they're different languages because they're different languages". I'm saying "they're different languages because people say they're different languages".
    - weberc2 9y ago
      It's circular because people say they're different languages because people say they're different languages.
kafkaesq 9y ago
No what the commenter was saying was that there are some pretty obvious differences between Spanish and Portuguese (not even remotely comparable to the differences between the mainline variants of English). See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_intelligibility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_intelligibility
- weberc2 9y ago
  That's not what the commenter was saying; he was saying that the different dialects of English are one language because they're all English (one language). This is ultimately circular. I agree with his conclusion, but the distinction between language and dialect is a hazy one and his answer shined no light.
  - kafkaesq 9y ago
    Well, having re-read their sentence... it definitely doesn't read that way to me. But you can read it that way, if you want to.

eridius 9y ago

No. English is one language because the entire world considers it to be one language. Spanish and Portuguese are two languages because the entire world considers it to be two languages.

weberc2 9y ago
That's still circular...
- eridius 9y ago
  No it's not. What defines a language? In the absence of context, I can't give you criteria for where the line is between a language or a dialect. But that doesn't matter, because the most important definition for "what's a language vs a dialect" is "how is it perceived by the world?". If the entire world thinks that Spanish and Portuguese are different languages, then they're different languages. It's that simple. This isn't circular because I'm not saying "they're different languages because they're different languages". I'm saying "they're different languages because people say they're different languages".
  - weberc2 9y ago
    It's circular because people say they're different languages because people say they're different languages.

kafkaesq 9y ago

No what the commenter was saying was that there are some pretty obvious differences between Spanish and Portuguese (not even remotely comparable to the differences between the mainline variants of English). See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_intelligibility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_intelligibility

weberc2 9y ago
That's not what the commenter was saying; he was saying that the different dialects of English are one language because they're all English (one language). This is ultimately circular. I agree with his conclusion, but the distinction between language and dialect is a hazy one and his answer shined no light.
- kafkaesq 9y ago
  Well, having re-read their sentence... it definitely doesn't read that way to me. But you can read it that way, if you want to.