Considerations of Dialect

Posted by Alex on June 29, 2009 under Language Study | Be the First to Comment

While we often tend to think of languages as singularities, understandable by everyone who calls him or herself a “native speaker,” this is not always the case; a single language, such as Italian for instance, may be broken up into dozens of smaller dialects, each with its own quirks that make it unique and distinct from the Italian spoken by other groups and communities.

Even though Italy is one country, it has many regions that have their own culture and language that differ from those of the rest of Italy. The dialects of Italy vary between regions. For historical, cultural, and political reasons, most “dialects of Italy” have not yet been given an official status. All the dialects of Italy exhibit internal variety, especially the dialects of the North, where the fragmentation into different states was more pronounced and where there was isolation because of the mountains.

It adds up to just another factor to be considered when translating a language for use abroad!