Old problem, on the difference between a language and a dialect: in 1945, the Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich formulated the much quoted metaphor (in Yiddish): ׀א שפראך יז א דיאלעקט מיט אן ארמײ ון א פלוט “Der yivo un di problemen fun undzer tsayt,” ײווא בלעטער (Yivo-bleter) 25.1 (1945), 13. The attribution of this quote is much disputed, however. I have seen it attributed to J. Fishman, the socio-linguist, who was an early student of Weinreich and may have originated the saying in a conversation. Anyone in the know care to comment?
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I just came across the wiki article on this question, which provides the quotes and quite a rich background, but no definitive origin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_language_is_a_dialect_with_an_army_and_navy
And a further attribution, by none other than Dan Boyarin, to the linguist Jespersen, page 460 of Boyarin’s article, “Justin Martyr invents Judaism”, Church History 70 (2001), 427–61.