[LINK] "A language is a dialect with an army and navy"

[rfmcdonald]

The thoroughness of the Wikipedia article on the origin of the linguistics aphorism "A language is a dialect with an army and navy" is a credit to the online encyclopedia. The page also helps publicize an aphorism that captures a truth about the human use of language, namely, the denial that certain variants of human language are capable of being full-fledged "languages" complete with written and spoken standards producing standards--the regional dialects and languages of France, say, or the English-based creole languages of the Caribbean--simply because their speakers aren't sufficiently organized to get this recognition for their language. The Wikipedia article on patois is relevant in this context, as is the article on Franco-Provençal. I don't pretend to know what I should think about Scots