From a linguistic point of view, two varieties are different languages if they are mutually incomprehensible. In contrast, if speakers of one variety can basically understand speakers of another, despite some differences in words, pronunciation, and grammar, then we say that the two varieties are two dialects of the same language.
On this basis we would have to describe Dutch and German as two dialects of the same language, as speakers of Dutch and German can, on the whole, understand each other. (Note that Germans refer to their language as Deutsch, so even their name for their language is nearly the same.) However, it is more usual to classify Dutch and German as independent languages. We need, therefore, to consider an alternative definition of dialect and language.
From a sociolinguistic perspective, a dialect does not have its own norms. Instead, it looks to a standard variety for its norms of spelling and grammar. On this basis, Dutch is clearly an independent language, as it is Dutch, not German, that children in the Netherlands learn when they go to school.
We might also consider varieties of Chinese such as Cantonese, Hakka and Hokkien. By the linguistic definition, they are all different languages, as they are mutually incomprehensible. However, from a sociolinguistic point of view, they can be considered dialects of Chinese, as schoolchildren throughout China only learn Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua) in school.
So what about Brunei Malay? Using the linguistic definition, it should be classified as an independent language, as people who try to speak Brunei Malay in places like Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu will find that they are not understood. But Brunei Malay is never taught in schools, and there are no established standards of spelling or pronunciation, as people in Brunei look to Standard Malay (Bahasa Melayu) for their norms. On this basis, Brunei Malay can be considered a dialect of Malay, not a language in its own right.
Here is a rare sample of Brunei Malay written down. As with the examples from yesterday's blog, it is attached to a tree along the forest trail in Bukit Mentiri:
It means "Be careful when you go down." The only word of Standard Malay is turun ("go down"). Of the other words: bisai means "careful", bah and atu are discourse particles and hard to translate, and kita is the second person pronoun ("you"), even though kita would be "we" in Standard Malay.
