Labeling of a code as a language or dialect is a process that involves multiple stakeholders. Fundamentally, the notions of language and dialect are not linguistic but ideological constructs. Academic and political definitions often overlap, but can also potentially be at odds with each other. This paper attempts to explore this dilemma by looking…

Chinese is a highly complex language with internal variation unprecedented in most other languages. Yet, that does not mean Chinese is unique in the sense that it cannot be compared to other languages and new concepts need to be introduced for the description of it. This paper is dedicated to the question of how to apply the notion of…

Offers a sociolinguistic appraisal of the representation of languages (as "languages" or "dialects") in the Indian census, with special reference to the status of Maithili. Classifying Maithili as an independent language threatens the homogeneity of the "Hindi belt"; conversely, treating it as a Hindi dialect might…