Dialect

context: The term dialect (from Latin dialectus, dialectos, from the ancient Greek word διάλεκτος diálektos, "discourse", from διά diá, "through" and λέγω legō, "I speak") is used in two distinct ways to refer to two different types of linguistic phenomena.
qas: answers: text: Latin
question: What language is the word dialectus from?

answers: text: Greek
question: From what language does the word diálektos come?

answers: text: discourse
question: What does diálektos mean in English?

answers: text: two
question: How many different types of linguistic phenomena is the term dialect used to describe?

answers: text: two
question: How many distinct ways is the term dialect used?

context: One usage—the more common among linguists—refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class. A dialect that is associated with a particular social class can be termed a sociolect, a dialect that is associated with a particular ethnic group can be termed as ethnolect, and a regional dialect may be termed a regiolect. According to this definition, any variety of a language constitutes "a dialect", including any standard varieties.
qas: answers: text: a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers
question: What is the common definition of dialect?

answers: text: regional speech patterns
question: What is the term dialect most often applied to?

answers: text: social class
question: Aside from region, what is an example of a factor that may influence dialect?

answers: text: sociolect
question: What is a term for a dialect particular to a social class?

answers: text: ethnolect
question: What do you call a dialect particular to a certain ethnicity?

context: The other usage refers to a language that is socially subordinated to a regional or national standard language, often historically cognate or related to the standard language, but not actually derived from it. In this sense, unlike in the first usage, the standard language would not itself be considered a "dialect," as it is the dominant language in a particular state or region, whether in terms of social or political status, official status, predominance or prevalence, or all of the above. Meanwhile, the "dialects" subordinate to the standard language are generally not variations on the standard language but rather separate (but often related) languages in and of themselves. For example, most of the various regional Romance languages of Italy, often colloquially referred to as Italian "dialects," are, in fact, not actually derived from modern standard Italian, but rather evolved from Vulgar Latin separately and individually from one another and independently of standard Italian, long prior to the diffusion of a national standardized language throughout what is now Italy. These various Latin-derived regional languages are therefore, in a linguistic sense, not truly "dialects" of the standard Italian language, but are instead better defined as their own separate languages. Conversely, with the spread of standard Italian throughout Italy in the 20th century, various regional versions or varieties of standard Italian developed, generally as a mix of the national standard Italian with local regional languages and local accents. These variations on standard Italian, known as regional Italian, would more appropriately be called "dialects" in accordance with the first linguistic definition of "dialect," as they are in fact derived partially or mostly from standard Italian. 
qas: answers: text: a language that is socially subordinated to a regional or national standard language
question: What is the other definition of the term dialect?

answers: text: subordinate to the standard language
question: How does a dialect stand in relation to the standard language?

answers: text: Italy
question: The regional Romance languages in what country are sometimes referred to as dialects?

answers: text: regional Italian
question: What are 20th century variations on standard Italian called?

answers: text: Latin
question: From what language did the regional Romance languages of Italy derive?

context: A dialect is distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation (phonology, including prosody). Where a distinction can be made only in terms of pronunciation (including prosody, or just prosody itself), the term accent may be preferred over dialect. Other types of speech varieties include jargons, which are characterized by differences in lexicon (vocabulary); slang; patois; pidgins; and argots.
qas: answers: text: vocabulary
question: Along with grammar and pronunciation, what distinguishes a dialect?

answers: text: accent
question: If only the pronunciation differs from the standard language, what term is sometimes used?

answers: text: jargons
question: What term is sometimes used for dialects that only differ in vocabulary?

answers: text: argots
question: Along with slangs, patois and pidgins, what is another type of smiilar speech variety?

context: A standard dialect (also known as a standardized dialect or "standard language") is a dialect that is supported by institutions. Such institutional support may include government recognition or designation; presentation as being the "correct" form of a language in schools; published grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks that set forth a correct spoken and written form; and an extensive formal literature that employs that dialect (prose, poetry, non-fiction, etc.). There may be multiple standard dialects associated with a single language. For example, Standard American English, Standard British English, Standard Canadian English, Standard Indian English, Standard Australian English, and Standard Philippine English may all be said to be standard dialects of the English language.
qas: answers: text: standard language
question: What is another term for a standard or standardized dialect?

answers: text: institutions
question: The support of what groups results in a dialect being standardized?

answers: text: textbooks
question: Along with grammars and dictionaries, what publications help a dialect to become standardized?

answers: text: English
question: Standard Philippine English is a standard dialect of of what language?

answers: text: government
question: Recognition from what body may help a dialect to become standardized?

context: A nonstandard dialect, like a standard dialect, has a complete vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, but is usually not the beneficiary of institutional support. Examples of a nonstandard English dialect are Southern American English, Western Australian English, Scouse and Tyke. The Dialect Test was designed by Joseph Wright to compare different English dialects with each other.
qas: answers: text: institutional support
question: What does a nonstandard dialect usually not have compared to a standard dialect?

answers: text: English
question: What language is Scouse a dialect of?

answers: text: The Dialect Test
question: What was created for the sake of comparing English dialects?

answers: text: Joseph Wright
question: Who came up with the Dialect Test?

answers: text: vocabulary
question: Along with a syntax and grammar, what attribute does a dialect possess?

context: There is no universally accepted criterion for distinguishing two different languages from two dialects (i.e. varieties) of the same language. A number of rough measures exist, sometimes leading to contradictory results. The distinction is therefore subjective and depends on the user's frame of reference. For example, there is discussion about if the Limón Creole English must be considered as "a kind" of English or a different language. This creole is spoken in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica (Central America) by descendant of Jamaican people. The position that Costa Rican linguists support depends on the University they belong.
qas: answers: text: Costa Rica
question: In what country is Limón Creole English spoken?

answers: text: Caribbean
question: On what coast of Costa Rica is Limón Creole English spoken?

answers: text: Jamaican
question: Speakers of Limón Creole English are descended from people of what nationality?

context: The most common, and most purely linguistic, criterion is that of mutual intelligibility: two varieties are said to be dialects of the same language if being a speaker of one variety confers sufficient knowledge to understand and be understood by a speaker of the other; otherwise, they are said to be different languages. However, this definition becomes problematic in the case of dialect continua, in which it may be the case that dialect B is mutually intelligible with both dialect A and dialect C but dialects A and C are not mutually intelligible with each other. In this case the criterion of mutual intelligibility makes it impossible to decide whether A and C are dialects of the same language or not. Cases may also arise in which a speaker of dialect X can understand a speaker of dialect Y, but not vice versa; the mutual intelligibility criterion flounders here as well.
qas: answers: text: mutual intelligibility
question: What trait is the most common way of determining if languages are dialects?

answers: text: dialect continua
question: What is the term for when dialects A and B are mutually intelligible, dialect B and C are mutually intelligible, but dialects A and C are not mutually intelligible?

answers: text: if being a speaker of one variety confers sufficient knowledge to understand and be understood by a speaker of the other
question: What is the definition of mutual intelligibility?

context: Another occasionally used criterion for discriminating dialects from languages is that of linguistic authority, a more sociolinguistic notion. According to this definition, two varieties are considered dialects of the same language if (under at least some circumstances) they would defer to the same authority regarding some questions about their language. For instance, to learn the name of a new invention, or an obscure foreign species of plant, speakers of Bavarian German and East Franconian German might each consult a German dictionary or ask a German-speaking expert in the subject. By way of contrast, although Yiddish is classified by linguists as a language in the "Middle High German" group of languages, a Yiddish speaker would not consult a German dictionary to determine the word to use in such a case.
qas: answers: text: linguistic authority
question: What term refers to another way in which dialects are distinguished from languages?

answers: text: East Franconian German
question: Under the linguistic authority criteria, what is a dialect of German along with Bavarian German?

answers: text: Middle High German
question: Of what group of languages is Yiddish a member?

answers: text: a Yiddish speaker would not consult a German dictionary
question: Why is Yiddish not a dialect of German?

context: By the definition most commonly used by linguists, any linguistic variety can be considered a "dialect" of some language—"everybody speaks a dialect". According to that interpretation, the criteria above merely serve to distinguish whether two varieties are dialects of the same language or dialects of different languages.
qas: answers: text: everybody
question: According to most linguistics, who speaks a dialect?

context: A framework was developed in 1967 by Heinz Kloss, abstand and ausbau languages, to describe speech communities, that while unified politically and/or culturally, include multiple dialects which though closely related genetically may be divergent to the point of inter-dialect unintelligibility.
qas: answers: text: Heinz Kloss
question: Who developed the abstand and ausbau languages framework?

answers: text: 1967
question: In what year was the abstand and ausbau framework developed?

answers: text: politically and/or culturally
question: What sort of unification in speech communities did the abstand and ausbau framework discuss?

context: The terms "language" and "dialect" are not necessarily mutually exclusive: There is nothing contradictory in the statement "the language of the Pennsylvania Dutch is a dialect of German".
qas: answers: text: German
question: The language of the Pennsylvania Dutch is a dialect of what language?

context: There are various terms that linguists may use to avoid taking a position on whether the speech of a community is an independent language in its own right or a dialect of another language. Perhaps the most common is "variety"; "lect" is another. A more general term is "languoid", which does not distinguish between dialects, languages, and groups of languages, whether genealogically related or not.
qas: answers: text: languoid
question: What term avoids distinguishing between languages and dialects?

answers: text: variety
question: What is the most common way of referring to a language without making the determination of whether it's a dialect or independent language?

answers: text: lect
question: Along with variety and languoid, what is another term used for a language without determining its independent status?

context: In many societies, however, a particular dialect, often the sociolect of the elite class, comes to be identified as the "standard" or "proper" version of a language by those seeking to make a social distinction, and is contrasted with other varieties. As a result of this, in some contexts the term "dialect" refers specifically to varieties with low social status. In this secondary sense of "dialect", language varieties are often called dialects rather than languages:
qas: answers: text: the elite class
question: With what social class it the standard dialect commonly associated?

answers: text: low
question: What social status is the term "dialect" sometimes associated with?

answers: text: dialects
question: What is another term for language varieties?

context: The status of "language" is not solely determined by linguistic criteria, but it is also the result of a historical and political development. Romansh came to be a written language, and therefore it is recognized as a language, even though it is very close to the Lombardic alpine dialects. An opposite example is the case of Chinese, whose variations such as Mandarin and Cantonese are often called dialects and not languages, despite their mutual unintelligibility.
qas: answers: text: historical and political
question: What non-linguistic developments influence the status of a language?

answers: text: Lombardic alpine
question: What dialect is the language Romansh similar to?

answers: text: Chinese
question: What language are Mandarin and Cantonese sometimes considered dialects of?

answers: text: mutual unintelligibility
question: Why might Mandarin and Cantonese not be regarded as dialects?

context: Modern Nationalism, as developed especially since the French Revolution, has made the distinction between "language" and "dialect" an issue of great political importance. A group speaking a separate "language" is often seen as having a greater claim to being a separate "people", and thus to be more deserving of its own independent state, while a group speaking a "dialect" tends to be seen not as "a people" in its own right, but as a sub-group, part of a bigger people, which must content itself with regional autonomy.[citation needed] The distinction between language and dialect is thus inevitably made at least as much on a political basis as on a linguistic one, and can lead to great political controversy, or even armed conflict.
qas: answers: text: the French Revolution
question: What event is regarded as a landmark in the development of modern nationalism?

answers: text: its own independent state
question: If possessing a language leads to a group being regarded as a separate people, what political arrangement presumably follows?

answers: text: regional autonomy
question: What political arrangement is associated with being a dialect-speaking sub-group?

answers: text: armed conflict
question: Along with political controversy, what can the distinction between a language and dialect sometimes lead to?

context: The Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich published the expression, A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot ("אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמײ און פֿלאָט"‎: "A language is a dialect with an army and navy") in YIVO Bleter 25.1, 1945, p. 13. The significance of the political factors in any attempt at answering the question "what is a language?" is great enough to cast doubt on whether any strictly linguistic definition, without a socio-cultural approach, is possible. This is illustrated by the frequency with which the army-navy aphorism is cited.
qas: answers: text: Yiddish
question: Max Weinreich is a linguist of what language?

answers: text: A language is a dialect with an army and navy
question: What does "A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot" mean in English?

answers: text: 1945
question: When did Max Weinrich write "A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot"?

context: When talking about the German language, the term German dialects is only used for the traditional regional varieties. That allows them to be distinguished from the regional varieties of modern standard German.
qas: answers: text: traditional regional varieties
question: When is the term 'German dialects' used in regard to the German language?

answers: text: the regional varieties of modern standard German
question: What are traditional region varieties of German distinguished from?

context: The German dialects show a wide spectrum of variation. Most of them are not mutually intelligible. German dialectology traditionally names the major dialect groups after Germanic tribes from which they were assumed to have descended.[citation needed]
qas: answers: text: Germanic tribes
question: After what entities are German dialects traditionally named?

context: The extent to which the dialects are spoken varies according to a number of factors: In Northern Germany, dialects are less common than in the South. In cities, dialects are less common than on the countryside. In a public environment, dialects are less common than in a familiar environment.
qas: answers: text: South
question: In what geographic part of Germany are dialects more common?

answers: text: Northern Germany
question: In what geographic part of Germany are dialects less frequently seen?

answers: text: cities
question: Dialects are more frequently seen in the countryside as compared to what population centers?

answers: text: public
question: In what environment are dialects less common?

answers: text: familiar
question: In what environment are dialects more frequently heard?

context: The situation in Switzerland and Liechtenstein is different from the rest of the German-speaking countries. The Swiss German dialects are the default everyday language in virtually every situation, whereas standard German is seldom spoken. Some Swiss German speakers perceive standard German to be a foreign language.
qas: answers: text: Swiss German
question: What dialect of German is spoken in Switzerland?

answers: text: standard German
question: What dialect of German is rarely heard in Switzerland?

answers: text: Liechtenstein
question: Aside from Switzerland, what country speaks a dialect related to Swiss German?

context: The Low German varieties spoken in Germany are often counted among the German dialects. This reflects the modern situation where they are roofed by standard German. This is different from the situation in the Middle Ages when Low German had strong tendencies towards an ausbau language.
qas: answers: text: an ausbau language
question: What type of language was Low German in the Middle Ages?

answers: text: they are roofed by standard German
question: Why are Low German varieties regarded as dialects of standard German?

context: Italy is home to a vast array of native regional minority languages, most of which are Romance-based and have their own local variants. These regional languages are often referred to colloquially or in non-linguistic circles as Italian "dialects," or dialetti (standard Italian for "dialects"). However, the majority of the regional languages in Italy are in fact not actually "dialects" of standard Italian in the strict linguistic sense, as they are not derived from modern standard Italian but instead evolved locally from Vulgar Latin independent of standard Italian, with little to no influence from what is now known as "standard Italian." They are therefore better classified as individual languages rather than "dialects."
qas: answers: text: dialetti
question: What are Italian dialects termed in the Italian language?

answers: text: Vulgar Latin
question: What language are many Italian dialects derived from?

answers: text: dialects
question: What does 'dialetti' mean in Italian?

answers: text: they are not derived from modern standard Italian
question: Why might Italian dialects be regarded as independent languages rather than dialects of standard Italian?

context: In addition to having evolved, for the most part, separately from one another and with distinct individual histories, the Latin-based regional Romance languages of Italy are also better classified as separate languages rather than true "dialects" due to the often high degree in which they lack mutual intelligibility. Though mostly mutually unintelligible, the exact degree to which the regional Italian languages are mutual unintelligible varies, often correlating with geographical distance or geographical barriers between the languages, with some regional Italian languages that are closer in geographical proximity to each other or closer to each other on the dialect continuum being more or less mutually intelligible. For instance, a speaker of purely Eastern Lombard, a language in Northern Italy's Lombardy region that includes the Bergamasque dialect, would have severely limited mutual intelligibility with a purely standard Italian speaker and would be nearly completely unintelligible to a speaker of a pure Sicilian language variant. Due to Eastern Lombard's status as a Gallo-Italic language, an Eastern Lombard speaker may, in fact, have more mutual intelligibility with a Occitan, Catalan, or French speaker than a standard Italian or Sicilian language speaker. Meanwhile, a Sicilian language speaker would have an greater degree of mutual intelligibility with a speaker of the more closely related Neapolitan language, but far less mutual intelligibility with a person speaking Sicilian Gallo-Italic, a language that developed in isolated Lombard emigrant communities on the same island as the Sicilian language.
qas: answers: text: they lack mutual intelligibility
question: What is a major reason why the Latin-based regional Romance languages of Italy should be regarded as independent languages rather than dialects of each other?

answers: text: Lombardy
question: From what region of Italy does the Eastern Lombard dialect hail?

answers: text: Gallo-Italic
question: What language family does Eastern Lombard belong to?

answers: text: Neapolitan
question: What type of language is Sicilian?

answers: text: Sicilian Gallo-Italic
question: What language was spoken by Lombard immigrants to Sicily?

context: Modern standard Italian itself is heavily based on the Latin-derived Florentine Tuscan language. The Tuscan-based language that would eventually become modern standard Italian had been used in poetry and literature since at least the 12th century, and it first became widely known in Italy through the works of authors such as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Petrarch. Dante's Florentine-Tuscan literary Italian thus became the language of the literate and upper class in Italy, and it spread throughout the peninsula as the lingua franca among the Italian educated class as well as Italian traveling merchants. The economic prowess and cultural and artistic importance of Tuscany in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance further encouraged the diffusion of the Florentine-Tuscan Italian throughout Italy and among the educated and powerful, though local and regional languages remained the main languages of the common people.
qas: answers: text: Florentine Tuscan
question: What language is modern standard Italian derived from?

answers: text: Latin
question: What language is Florentine Tuscan based on?

answers: text: 12th
question: During what century did Florentine Tuscan begin to be used in poetry?

answers: text: upper class
question: What socioeconomic class used the Florentine Tuscan language in Dante's time?

answers: text: Tuscany
question: From what region of Italy did Florentine Tuscan derive?

context: During the Risorgimento, proponents of Italian republicanism and Italian nationalism, such as Alessandro Manzoni, stressed the importance of establishing a uniform national language in order to better create an Italian national identity. With the unification of Italy in the 1860s, standard Italian became the official national language of the new Italian state, while the various unofficial regional languages of Italy gradually became regarded as subordinate "dialects" to Italian, increasingly associated negatively with lack of education or provincialism. However, at the time of the Italian Unification, standard Italian still existed mainly as a literary language, and only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak standard Italian.
qas: answers: text: Alessandro Manzoni
question: What Italian nationalist spoke of the importance of a national Italian language?

answers: text: the Risorgimento
question: During what period was the importance of having an Italian national language raised?

answers: text: 1860s
question: In what decade was Italy unified?

answers: text: 2.5%
question: What percentage of Italians spoke standard Italian when Italy was first unified?

answers: text: standard Italian
question: When Italy was unified, what was named the official national language?

context: In the early 20th century, the vast conscription of Italian men from all throughout Italy during World War I is credited with facilitating the diffusion of standard Italian among less educated Italian men, as these men from various regions with various regional languages were forced to communicate with each other in a common tongue while serving in the Italian military. With the eventual spread of the radio and television throughout Italy and the establishment of public education, Italians from all regions were increasingly exposed to standard Italian, while literacy rates among all social classes improved. Today, the majority of Italians are able to speak standard Italian, though many Italians still speak their regional language regularly or as their primary day-to-day language, especially at home with family or when communicating with Italians from the same town or region. However, to some Italians, speaking a regional language, especially in a formal setting or outside of one's region, may carry a stigma or negative connotations associated with being lower class, uneducated, boorish, or overly informal.
qas: answers: text: World War I
question: During what war did a large number of Italian men first learn standard Italian?

answers: text: television
question: Along with radio and public education, what invention helped to diffuse standard Italian among the Italian population?

answers: text: lower
question: In modern Italy, what class of people are regional languages sometimes associated with?

answers: text: outside of one's region
question: Along with formal settings, where do some Italians avoid speaking their regional language?

answers: text: at home with family
question: Aside from when they're speaking to Italians from their same town or region, where is a common place where Italians speak their regional language?

context: Italians in different regions today may also speak regional varieties of standard Italian, or regional Italian dialects, which, unlike the majority of languages of Italy, are actually dialects of standard Italian rather than separate languages. A regional Italian dialect is generally standard Italian that has been heavily influenced or mixed with local or regional native languages and accents.
qas: answers: text: standard Italian
question: Regional Italian dialects are often influenced by regional languages and what other language?

context: The languages of Italy are primarily Latin-based Romance languages, with the most widely spoken languages falling within the Italo-Dalmatian language family. This wide category includes:
qas: answers: text: Italo-Dalmatian
question: What language family do most of the languages of Italy belong to?

answers: text: Latin
question: What language are most languages of Italy derived from?

answers: text: Romance
question: Aside from Italo-Dalmatian, what is another term for the group that Italian languages belong to?

context: The Sardinian language is considered to be its own Romance language family, separate not only from standard Italian but also the wider Italo-Dalmatian family, and it includes the Campidanese Sardinian and Logudorese Sardinian variants. However, Gallurese, Sassarese, and Corsican are also spoken in Sardinia, and these languages are considered closely related or derived from the Italian Tuscan language and thus are Italo-Dalmatian languages. Furthermore, the Gallo-Romance language of Ligurian and the Catalan Algherese dialect are also spoken in Sardinia.
qas: answers: text: The Sardinian language
question: Campidanese Sardinian is a variant of what language?

answers: text: Italian Tuscan
question: What language is Sassarese closely related to?

answers: text: Italo-Dalmatian
question: What language family does Gallurese belong to?

answers: text: Gallo-Romance
question: What language family does Ligurian belong to?

answers: text: Sardinian
question: Where is the Catalan Algherese dialect spoken?

context: The classification of speech varieties as dialects or languages and their relationship to other varieties of speech can be controversial and the verdicts inconsistent. English and Serbo-Croatian illustrate the point. English and Serbo-Croatian each have two major variants (British and American English, and Serbian and Croatian, respectively), along with numerous other varieties. For political reasons, analyzing these varieties as "languages" or "dialects" yields inconsistent results: British and American English, spoken by close political and military allies, are almost universally regarded as dialects of a single language, whereas the standard languages of Serbia and Croatia, which differ from each other to a similar extent as the dialects of English, are being treated by some linguists from the region as distinct languages, largely because the two countries oscillate from being brotherly to being bitter enemies. (The Serbo-Croatian language article deals with this topic much more fully.)
qas: answers: text: American English
question: Along with British English, what is the major variant of the English language?

answers: text: Serbian and Croatian
question: What are the two major variants of Serbo-Croatian?

answers: text: dialects of a single language
question: Are British and American English regarded as distinct languages, or dialects of a single language?

answers: text: distinct languages
question: Do regional linguists treat Serbian and Croation as distinct languages or as dialects of a single language?

answers: text: the two countries oscillate from being brotherly to being bitter enemies
question: Why are Serbian and Croatian often treated like distinct languages?

context: Similar examples abound. Macedonian, although mutually intelligible with Bulgarian, certain dialects of Serbian and to a lesser extent the rest of the South Slavic dialect continuum, is considered by Bulgarian linguists to be a Bulgarian dialect, in contrast with the contemporary international view and the view in the Republic of Macedonia, which regards it as a language in its own right. Nevertheless, before the establishment of a literary standard of Macedonian in 1944, in most sources in and out of Bulgaria before the Second World War, the southern Slavonic dialect continuum covering the area of today's Republic of Macedonia were referred to as Bulgarian dialects.
qas: answers: text: Bulgarian
question: Along with Serbian, with what language is Macedonian mutually intelligible?

answers: text: South Slavic
question: What dialect continuum does Macedonian belong to?

answers: text: a Bulgarian dialect
question: What do Bulgarian linguists regard the Macedonian language as?

answers: text: 1944
question: In what year was a Macedonian literary standard established?

answers: text: Republic of Macedonia
question: In what country is Macedonian most commonly spoken?

context: In Lebanon, a part of the Christian population considers "Lebanese" to be in some sense a distinct language from Arabic and not merely a dialect. During the civil war Christians often used Lebanese Arabic officially, and sporadically used the Latin script to write Lebanese, thus further distinguishing it from Arabic. All Lebanese laws are written in the standard literary form of Arabic, though parliamentary debate may be conducted in Lebanese Arabic.
qas: answers: text: Christian
question: Lebanese people of what religion sometimes consider Lebanese to be a distinct language?

answers: text: Arabic
question: In what language are Lebanese laws written?

answers: text: Lebanese Arabic
question: During the Lebanese Civil War, what language did Lebanese Christians sometimes use officially?

answers: text: Arabic
question: What language is Lebanese closely related to?

answers: text: Latin
question: What script did Lebanese Christians sometimes use to write Lebanese Arabic during the civil war?

context: In Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, the Darijas (spoken North African languages) are sometimes considered more different from other Arabic dialects. Officially, North African countries prefer to give preference to the Literary Arabic and conduct much of their political and religious life in it (adherence to Islam), and refrain from declaring each country's specific variety to be a separate language, because Literary Arabic is the liturgical language of Islam and the language of the Islamic sacred book, the Qur'an. Although, especially since the 1960s, the Darijas are occupying an increasing use and influence in the cultural life of these countries. Examples of cultural elements where Darijas' use became dominant include: theatre, film, music, television, advertisement, social media, folk-tale books and companies' names.
qas: answers: text: Algeria
question: Along with Morocco and Tunisia, in what country are the Darijas spoken?

answers: text: Literary Arabic
question: What is the liturgical language of Islam?

answers: text: Literary Arabic
question: In what language is the Qur'an written?

answers: text: spoken North African languages
question: What does the term Dariajs refer to?

answers: text: Islam
question: What is the dominant religion of North Africa?

context: In the 19th century, the Tsarist Government of the Russian Empire claimed that Ukrainian was merely a dialect of Russian and not a language on its own. The differences were few and caused by the conquest of western Ukraine by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, the dialects in Ukraine eventually differed substantially from the dialects in Russia.
qas: answers: text: 19th
question: During what century did the Russian government claim that Ukrainian was a Russian dialect?

answers: text: the Tsarist Government
question: What Russian government claimed that Ukrainian was not a distinct language?

answers: text: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
question: The conquest of western Ukraine by what country altered the language of Ukraine?

context: The German Empire conquered Ukraine during World War I and was planning on either annexing it or installing a puppet king, but was defeated by the Entente, with major involvement by the Ukrainian Bolsheviks. After conquering the rest of Ukraine from the Whites, Ukraine joined the USSR and was enlarged (gaining Crimea and then Eastern Galicia), whence a process of Ukrainization was begun, with encouragement from Moscow.
qas: answers: text: The German Empire
question: What nation conquered Ukraine during the First World War?

answers: text: the Entente
question: What alliance defeated the German Empire in World War I?

answers: text: Bolsheviks
question: What Ukrainian political group was involved in the defeat of the German Empire?

answers: text: Whites
question: Who did the Ukrainian Bolsheviks conquer the Ukraine from?

context: After World War II, due to Ukrainian collaborationism with the Axis powers in an attempt to gain independence, Moscow changed its policy towards repression of the Ukrainian language.
qas: answers: text: World War II
question: After what war did Moscow begin to repress the Ukrainian language?

answers: text: Ukrainian collaborationism with the Axis powers
question: Why did Moscow begin to repress the Ukrainian language?

answers: text: to gain independence
question: Why did Ukrainians collaborate with the Axis?

context: Today the boundaries of the Ukrainian language to the Russian language are still not drawn clearly, with an intermediate dialect between them, called Surzhyk, developing in Ukraine.
qas: answers: text: Ukraine
question: In what country is the Surzhyk dialect spoken?

answers: text: Russian
question: Surzhyk is a dialect intermediate between the Ukrainian language and what other language?

context: There have been cases of a variety of speech being deliberately reclassified to serve political purposes. One example is Moldovan. In 1996, the Moldovan parliament, citing fears of "Romanian expansionism", rejected a proposal from President Mircea Snegur to change the name of the language to Romanian, and in 2003 a Moldovan–Romanian dictionary was published, purporting to show that the two countries speak different languages. Linguists of the Romanian Academy reacted by declaring that all the Moldovan words were also Romanian words; while in Moldova, the head of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Ion Bărbuţă, described the dictionary as a politically motivated "absurdity".
qas: answers: text: Mircea Snegur
question: Who was the president of Moldova in 1996?

answers: text: 2003
question: In what year was a Moldovan-Romanian dictionary published?

answers: text: Romanian expansionism
question: Fear of what caused the Moldovan parliament to reject changing the name of the country's language to Romanian in 1996?

answers: text: Ion Bărbuţă
question: Who was the head of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova?

context: Unlike most languages that use alphabets to indicate the pronunciation, Chinese characters have developed from logograms that do not always give hints to its pronunciation. Although the written characters remained relatively consistent for the last two thousand years, the pronunciation and grammar in different regions has developed to an extent that the varieties of the spoken language are often mutually unintelligible. As a series of migration to the south throughout the history, the regional languages of the south, including Xiang, Wu, Gan, Min, Yue (Cantonese), and Hakka often show traces of Old Chinese or Middle Chinese. From the Ming dynasty onward, Beijing has been the capital of China and the dialect spoken in Beijing has had the most prestige among other varieties. With the founding of the Republic of China, Standard Mandarin was designated as the official language, based on the spoken language of Beijing. Since then, other spoken varieties are regarded as fangyan (dialects). Cantonese is still the most commonly used language in Hong Kong, Macau and among some overseas Chinese communities, whereas Southern Min has been accepted in Taiwan as an important local language along with Mandarin.
qas: answers: text: logograms
question: From what did Chinese characters derive?

answers: text: Cantonese
question: What is another name for the Yue language?

answers: text: the south
question: Hakka is a language from what geographic part of China?

answers: text: Beijing
question: From the time of the Ming dynasty, what city was the capital of China?

answers: text: Standard Mandarin
question: At its founding. what was the official language of the Republic of China?

context: Many historical linguists view any speech form as a dialect of the older medium of communication from which it developed.[citation needed] This point of view sees the modern Romance languages as dialects of Latin, modern Greek as a dialect of Ancient Greek, Tok Pisin as a dialect of English, and North Germanic as dialects of Old Norse. This paradigm is not entirely problem-free. It sees genetic relationships as paramount: the "dialects" of a "language" (which itself may be a "dialect" of a yet older language) may or may not be mutually intelligible. Moreover, a parent language may spawn several "dialects" which themselves subdivide any number of times, with some "branches" of the tree changing more rapidly than others.
qas: answers: text: Latin
question: From the perspective of historical linguists, what are Romance languages dialects of?

answers: text: Ancient Greek
question: What do many historical linguists consider modern Greek to be a dialect of?

answers: text: Old Norse
question: From what language is North Germanic derived?

answers: text: English
question: Tok Pisin might be regarded as a dialect of what language?

context: This can give rise to the situation in which two dialects (defined according to this paradigm) with a somewhat distant genetic relationship are mutually more readily comprehensible than more closely related dialects. In one opinion, this pattern is clearly present among the modern Romance languages, with Italian and Spanish having a high degree of mutual comprehensibility, which neither language shares with French, despite some claiming that both languages are genetically closer to French than to each other:[citation needed] In fact, French-Italian and French-Spanish relative mutual incomprehensibility is due to French having undergone more rapid and more pervasive phonological change than have Spanish and Italian, not to real or imagined distance in genetic relationship. In fact, Italian and French share many more root words in common that do not even appear in Spanish.
qas: answers: text: Spanish
question: Italian is significantly mutually comprehensible with what other Romance language?

answers: text: French
question: With what romance language does Spanish not have a high degree of mutual comprehensibility?

answers: text: French having undergone more rapid and more pervasive phonological change
question: What is the reason for French and Italian not being very mutually comprehensible?

context: For example, the Italian and French words for various foods, some family relationships, and body parts are very similar to each other, yet most of those words are completely different in Spanish. Italian "avere" and "essere" as auxiliaries for forming compound tenses are used similarly to French "avoir" and "être". Spanish only retains "haber" and has done away with "ser" in forming compound tenses. However, when it comes to phonological structures, Italian and Spanish have undergone less change than French, with the result that some native speakers of Italian and Spanish may attain a degree of mutual comprehension that permits extensive communication.[citation needed]
qas: answers: text: avere
question: What Italian word is similar to the French word "avoir"?

answers: text: être
question: What French word is similar to the Italian word "essere"?

answers: text: Italian and Spanish
question: What two languages have the possibility for significant mutual intelligibility?

answers: text: body parts
question: Along with foods and family relationships, what sorts of words are similar in French and Italian?

answers: text: sere
question: When forming compound tenses in Spanish, what auxiliary is no longer used?

context: One language, Interlingua, was developed so that the languages of Western civilization would act as its dialects. Drawing from such concepts as the international scientific vocabulary and Standard Average European, linguists[who?] developed a theory that the modern Western languages were actually dialects of a hidden or latent language.[citation needed] Researchers at the International Auxiliary Language Association extracted words and affixes that they considered to be part of Interlingua's vocabulary. In theory, speakers of the Western languages would understand written or spoken Interlingua immediately, without prior study, since their own languages were its dialects. This has often turned out to be true, especially, but not solely, for speakers of the Romance languages and educated speakers of English. Interlingua has also been found to assist in the learning of other languages. In one study, Swedish high school students learning Interlingua were able to translate passages from Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian that students of those languages found too difficult to understand. It should be noted, however, that the vocabulary of Interlingua extends beyond the Western language families.
qas: answers: text: Interlingua
question: What language could all Western languages be considered dialects of?

answers: text: International Auxiliary Language Association
question: Researchers at what organization study and develop Interlingua?

answers: text: Swedish
question: What was the nationality of high school students who learned Interlingua in a notable linguistic experiment?

answers: text: Portuguese
question: Along with Italian and Spanish, what language could Swedish Interlingua learners translate?

answers: text: the international scientific vocabulary
question: Along with Standard Average European, from what concept was Interlingua derived?