Bidialectals: Do They Have the Same Benefits as Bilinguals?

Recently I read an article in a Website about the possible benefits of speaking more than one dialect. There are many studies and essays about the advantages of bilingualism. More benefits can be added for someone who can speak more than 2 languages. But, are those benefits shared by people who can speak 2 or more dialects? 

To better understand this question, we must first answer the question of what is a Dialect. According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus, Dialect is “a form of the language that is spoken in a particular part of the country or by a particular group of people”. The term dialect comes from ancient Greek διάλεκτος (diálektos) through Latin “dialectus”. The word “diálektos” in Greek means “Talk, Speech”.  See etymonline.

According to the Collins dictionary, people who are fluent in two dialects of a language are known as “Bidialectal” 

The definition of dialect does not have objective differences between this term and a language. There are no specifications on how much variation we need to see to consider the existence of other language or a dialect. In English, we could talk about different dialects when we compare the speech of Toronto and New York, or when we compare Cockney with Geordie dialect, or when we talk about Scots, a form of English that is considered by some as a different language and other people consider it an English dialect.

When we talk about groups of different languages, we can see groups of languages that are mutually intelligible, like the case of Swedish and Norwegian, separate Scandinavian languages but their speakers can easily understand each other. Portuguese and Spanish are also very similar languages. But languages like Arabic or Italian are famous for having a variety of dialects that in most cases are not mutually intelligible.

Many linguists like to repeat the phrase coined by the linguist Max Weinreich, that “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy”. Sometimes political criteria apply to consider 2 different forms of speech as separate languages. Swedish and Norwegian are languages of separate countries. Old books of linguistics, and sometimes not that old (I have just checked Trask R. L. “Historical Linguistics” printed in 1996), among the different Balto-Slavic languages we can read that one of them is Serbo-Croatian. Today, after the breakup of Yugoslavia, we have different new languages added to the list like Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian, but the variations that exist between them are not enough to make them not mutually intelligible.

Another situation is related with the prestige of a dialect. Very often, speaking in dialects was (and still is) associated with low status. The prestige of a form of speech is associated with a standard dialect, while non-standard dialects are those who traditionally lack prestige. 

In this article in Italian from patrimoni linguistici we can read a list of myths around dialects. Some of them are that they could prevent children to learn the national language, they might bring confusion and that they are a symbol of Isolation. Italy is famous for its diversity in dialects that are not mutually intelligible and today many linguists are considering them as separate languages that evolved from Latin itself and not from Italian.

Back to my question about the benefits of speaking more than one dialect, some recent researches have been published. In a publication about those researches, we can read about a study made by professionals from the University of Cyprus and the Cyprus University of Technology. They studied the cognitive performance of children who grew up speaking Cypriot Greek and Standard Modern Greek. They found that bi-dialectal children had better results than monolingual in tests of Memory, Attention and cognitive flexibility. This same article mentions a similar study in Norway where Norwegian children who were taught to write in 2 different forms of Norwegian language score higher than monolinguals in arithmetic and reading tests.

In my opinion, because there are no objective differences between Languages and Dialects, people who speak 2 dialects enjoy the same benefits as bilinguals. I agree with a paper published by Cambridge University by Steve McClanahan where they say that switching between any two forms of language, provides extra stimulation to the mind that leads to higher cognitive performance.   

It is true that there are disadvantages for bi-dialectal students. In some countries, some dialects are not politically in high regard and still, they might be seen as speaking the language “incorrectly” by some educative systems.

Today, dialects are more recognized in countries across Europe and in other democratic societies, and their use is more relevant. Today, our societies show a tendency to pluralism and multiple cultures. Anyone who can switch between any two forms of language will have a clear advantage over monolinguals in terms of studies and employment.