LING 115 Midterm (1)
Mutual Intelligibility Hypothesis (MIH) - correct answer ✔✔If speakers of two
varieties of language A and B can understand each other when they speak, then A
and B can be considered to be varieties of a single language C.
If speakers of a variety A and B cannot understand each other when they speak,
then A and B cannot be considered to be varieties of a single language C, and
therefore must be independent languages A and B (or varieties of independent
languages)
Examples of languages supporting the MIH - correct answer ✔✔English
Examples of languages NOT supporting MIH - correct answer ✔✔1. Danish, Swedish
and Norwegian (mutually intelligible)
2. Egyptian Arabic and Moroccan Arabic
3. Mandarin, Cantonese and Shanghainese (not mutually intelligible)
Dialect - correct answer ✔✔a variety of a language which has certain differences in
grammar from the standard language to which it is related, as well as differences in
pronunciation and vocabulary
"a language is a dialect with an army and a navy"
"every language has dialects but not every dialect is a language"
Example of dialects that are formally considered a language - correct answer
✔✔Hindi/Urdu
Example of a language that is considered formally a dialect - correct answer
✔✔Chinese is one language but is made up of Mandarin, Cantonese and Taiwanese
