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TED-Ed

What makes a language... a language? - Martin Hilpert

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12,612 Questions Answered

TEDEd Animation

Let’s Begin…

Outside of China, Mandarin and Cantonese are often referred to as Chinese dialects, despite being even more dissimilar than Spanish and Italian. On the other hand, speakers of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, which are three distinct languages, can usually communicate with each other in their native tongues. So, when is speech considered a dialect versus a language? Martin Hilpert investigates.

Additional Resources for you to Explore

You can find out a lot more about language on my YouTube channel. The videos are meant for university students, but I try to design them in such a way that they are accessible to everyone. Here, I just highlight three videos that my viewers have found particularly useful: 1. If you're interested in dialects, you will like this video on sociolinguistics, which expands on the topics that were covered in this Ted-Ed lesson. 2. I created a series of videos on varieties of English around the world. 3. More generally, if you are interested in linguistics and you are thinking about studying it at university, there is a video with a few thoughts on that here.

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Meet The Creators

Educator
Martin Hilpert
Director
Luísa Holanda, Hype CG
Narrator
Addison Anderson
Storyboard Artist
Luísa Holanda
Animator
Murilo Jardim
Art Director
Luísa Holanda
Hype Producer
Taíla Soliman
Composer
Gabriel Maia
Sound Designer
Gabriel Maia
Director of Production
Gerta Xhelo
Editorial Director
Alex Rosenthal
Producer
Bethany Cutmore-Scott
Associate Editorial Producer
Cella Wright
Production Coordinator
Abdallah Ewis
Script Editor
Alex Gendler
Fact-Checker
Jennifer Nam

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