| Each language exists in a number of varieties and is in one sense the sum of those varieties. But what do we mean by variety? Hudson (1996) defines a variety of language as 'a set of linguistic items with similar distribution,' a definition that allows us to say that all of the following are varieties: English, French, London English, the English of football commentaries, and so on. According to Hudson, this definition also allows us 'to treat all the languages of some multilingual speaker, or community, as a single variety, since all the linguistic items concerned have a similar social distribution.' A variety can therefore be something greater than a single language as well as something less, less even than something traditionally referred to as a dialect.As a variety of language, 'dialect' plays an important role in the language research. There are two separate ways of distinguishing 'language' and 'dialect'. On the one hand, there is a difference of size, because a 'language' is larger than a 'dialect'. That is, a variety called a 'language' contains more items than one called a 'dialect'. The other contrast between 'language' and 'dialect' is a question of prestige, a 'language' having prestige while a 'dialect' lacks. Whether some variety is called a 'language' or a 'dialect' depends on how much prestige one thinks it has, and for most people this is a clear-cut matter, which depends on whether it is used in formal writing. Standard languages are the result of a direct and deliberate intervention by society. This intervention, which is called 'standardization', produces a standard language where before there were just 'dialects' (in the second sense, i.e. non-standard varieties). The notion 'standard language' is somewhat imprecise, but a typical standard language will have passed through the following processes (Haugen 1966) as selection, codification, elaboration of function and acceptance.The standard language is a language regulated by the authority to be used by the whole nation. And dialects are the regional varieties or divisions whichare the languages used by a certain region of a society. The standard language is an advanced form centered by various dialects. It not only affects the pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar of the dialects, but also limits the development of the dialects.China is a country rich in varieties of dialects. Generally speaking, there are seven dialects in modern Chinese. They are: the Northern dialect, the Wu dialect, the Xiang dialect, the Gan dialect, the Hakka dialect, the Min dialect and the Yue dialect. Among the seven dialects, the Hakka dialect has a unique characteristic.The Hakka dialect is the common language spoken by the Hakkas - a unique ethnic group of Chinese people. The Hakka dialect is the most important characteristic of the Hakkas. The Hakka dialect mainly distributes in the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan, Taiwan and Sichuan, and in other countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.The Hakkas used to be the northern Hans living in Central China. Ever since the period of East Jin, there were constant wars in North China resulting in frequent changes of rulers. The northern Hans who were plagued by wars and disasters could not stay there anymore and had to abandon their homes. They crossed the Yellow and Yangtze rivers in groups, moving towards the south little by little. Finally they settled down in South China. Living in a rather isolated area, this group of people, adhered to their traditional culture and language despite the influence of the native ones, resulting in a new form of dialect - the Hakka dialect.As one of the oldest Chinese, the most typical characteristic of the Hakka dialect lies in its preservation of most features of ancient Chinese in the aspects of phonetics, vocabulary and grammar.The earliest study of the Hakka dialect mainly focused on its etymology. In the first half of the 20th century, some scholars did primary research on the pronunciation of the Hakka dialect. From 1950s t...
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