Abstract
It is generally accepted that the concepts ‘language’ and ‘dialect’ are not entirely linguistic notions, but also involve social, cultural and political factors. Nonetheless, it is still nowadays difficult to agree upon a set of satisfying criteria by which ‘languages’ can be differentiated from ‘dialects’. In this chapter, we analyse the linguistic context present in South Tyrol in order to highlight the consequences of these unsatisfying definitions. Using the intelligibility criterion, we demonstrate that there is a certain degree of Abstand between Standard German and the Bavarian variety spoken in South Tyrol. We then show how this degree of Abstand affects the early stages of acquisition and the linguistic performance of South Tyrolean children.