Comment on xkcd 2682 for linguists
stabby_cicada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 days agoIt’s interesting to note that every person who knows a language defines its words just a tiny bit differently than everyone else, based on their personal experiences with the objects and concepts and actions the words refer to.
It is, therefore, arguable that there are at least eight billion different languages spoken on Earth. And at least twice that, when you take bilingual and multilingual speakers into account.
Hoimo@ani.social 3 days ago
Now the next unsolved question is: when a person is multilingual, should that count as multiple languages or are they all facets of the same idiolect? Is code-switching between formal and informal English the same as code-switching between English and French? Can a person even have multiple idiolects?