Books

Books : reviews

Robert McCrum, William Cran, Robert MacNeil.
The Story of English.
BBC. 1986

rating : 3.5 : worth reading

p13. The line between accent, dialect and language is not a sure or a steady one and is often disputed, even by specialists. Is Scottish English, for instance, a language or a dialect? The experts find it hard to be certain. It has been said that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy", but my accent often turns out to be your dialect.