the dialect/language debate rages on. personally, although i say it's a dialect in the description, i did just copy that from a book, i fall on the side of language. dialect to me means variations on pronuciation which Doric does have (eg: There's no way = 'ers nae wye) but Doric also has words and phrases which don't appear in other languages (eg: I'm very tired = Am fair forfochen).