How to make the most of this section Here, you'll be asked questions on key concepts you need to learn in each chapter. A brief answer follows each question. Remember these are only the most basic points out of the textbook. You might want go back to the textbook for more details. Of course, corresponding page numbers are provided.
Dialects vary across groups of language users, e.g., Boston versus Brooklyn accents.
Registers, on the other hand, are determined by situations of language use, e.g., legalese and slang. Whether or not two varieties are considered dialects or languages is as much a linguistic issue as a social one. Languages of different origins are merged through contact between speakers of different languages. An interesting case of language merger was observed in a village called Kupwar in India. In contrast to the case of language merger, relatively uniform varieties of a language evolves into different languages.