Dialect Definition
dialect
- See Wiktionary:Dialects for the treatment of dialects on Wiktionary.
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English
Wikipedia has an article on: DialectEtymology
From Ancient Greek διάλεκτος (diálektos, “conversation, the language of a country or a place or a nation, the local idiom which derives from a dominant language”), from διαλέγομαι (dialégomai, “I participate in a dialogue”), from διά (diá, “inter, through”) + λέγω (légō, “I speak”).
Pronunciation
Noun
dialect (plural dialects)
- (linguistics) A variety of a language (specifically, often a spoken variety) that is characteristic of a particular area, community or group, often with relatively minor differences in vocabulary, style, spelling and pronunciation.
- A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.
- A dialect of a language perceived as substandard and wrong.
- Roger W. Shuy, Discovering American dialects, National Council of Teachers of English, 1967, page 1:
- Many even deny it and say something like this: "No, we don't speak a dialect around here. [...]
- Linguistic perspectives on black English, H. Carl, 1975, pg. 219:
- Well, those children don't speak dialect, not in this school. Maybe in the public schools, but not here.
- H. Nigel Thomas, Spirits in the dark, Heinemann, 1994, pg. 11:
- [...] on the second day, Miss Anderson gave the school a lecture on why it was wrong to speak dialect. She had ended by saying "Respectable people don't speak dialect."
- Roger W. Shuy, Discovering American dialects, National Council of Teachers of English, 1967, page 1:
Usage notes
- The difference between a language and a dialect is not always clear, but it is generally considered that people who speak different dialects can understand each other, while people who speak different languages cannot. Compare species in the biological sense.
Derived terms
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See also
Anagrams
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˌdijaˈlɛkt/
Noun
dialect n. (plural dialecten, diminutive dialectje)
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The term dialect (from the Greek Language word dialektos, Διάλεκτος) is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class. A dialect that is associated with a particular social class can be termed a sociolect; a regional dialect may be termed a regiolect or topolect. The other usage refers to a language socially subordinate to a regional or national standard language, often historically cognate to the standard, but not a variety of it or in any other sense derived from it. This more precise usage enables distinguishing between varieties of a language, such as the French spoken in Nice, France, and local languages distinct from the superordinate language, e.g. Nissart, the traditional native Romance language of Nice, known in French as Niçard.