I’ve been annoyed more than once when someone tries to disparage indigenous languages by calling them dialects; this attitude toward them is largely a product of a confusion that has clearly arisen from our disinformation about the difference between a language and a dialect, and also from the absurd prejudice of the status of a language, because believe it or not, even languages have a certain status, according to the vision of society.
To cure ourselves of the first problem that has brought us to this point, disinformation, it is necessary to understand something basic: Languages are alive and changing, they do not remain static and this reality of languages is the source of life for the study of linguistics.
Having grasped the above will facilitate us to go to the next thing, which is the distinction between a language and a dialect. Without more detours, a dialect is simply a different manifestation of a language, with its own particular characteristics of the region where it arises.
A simple example that would allow us to understand this would be to hear a Mexican speak with a Puerto Rican. Both speak Spanish, but they speak a different manifestation of it. Meaning, they speak dialects of Spanish. However, note that dialects as such have no written form in a formal environment.
Each idiom has a written and spoken standard, although the second is only present in the formal mode of speech.
I would like to clarify that I don’t downplay dialects. I am a speaker of one, Mexican Spanish, but I am against those, who in order to despise a language, misunderstand the concept, thinking that a dialect is inferior to a language when they are simply different things. That being said, we can talk about the second reason for this attitude that devalues indigenous languages and some dialects: the prejudice of the status of a language.
In society, it can be observed that the habitual behavior of the majority language group implies an aggressive effort to impose its language on the minority cultural group or the inevitable isolation of the minority group due to the language barrier.
These actions corner the speakers of the minority language, leaving them two options: Learn our language so that you have greater opportunities or sink into poverty.
This happens in Mexico, the United States, and in every country that clumsily faces the challenge of a multilingual society.
The cases do not necessarily have to be indigenous languages because, right here, I have heard sad testimonies of how minority language speakers have been trampled by speakers of the “most prestigious language” for its language barrier.
These conflicts of prestige between languages must stop and the truth is that in any place where the need of teaching the incalculable value of languages and the cultural and historical richness of each is neglected, ignorance, insensitivity and indifference will continue being a present shadow and the minority languages will continue to be defenseless, facing possible situations of abuse and prejudice.
