Wiktionary

dialect

English

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Etymology

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From Middle French dialecte, from Latin dialectos, dialectus, 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”); by surface analysis, dia- +‎ -lect.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈdaɪ.əˌlɛkt/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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dialect (plural dialects)

  1. (linguistics, strict sense) A lect (often a regional or minority language) as part of a group or family of languages, especially if they are viewed as a single language, or if contrasted with a standardized idiom that is considered the 'true' form of the language (for example, Bavarian as contrasted with Standard German).
    Synonym: (often derogatory) patois
    • 1995, Michael [G.] Clyne, The German language in a changing Europe, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 117:
      The question could be put: 'Is there anything inherent in a dialect which gives it a negative stigma or is it that the status of the majority of the speakers is transferred to the dialect?' — something that occurs in many regions in different countries.
    • 2010, Mirjam Fried, Jan-Ola Östman, Jef Verschueren, editors, Variation and Change: Pragmatic perspectives (Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights; 6), John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, Dialect, by Ronald Macaulay, page 61:
      Bloomfield, for example, noted that “local dialects are spoken by the peasants and the poorest people of the towns” (1933: 50) though he also thought that the lower middle class spoke 'sub-standard' speech.
    • 2014, Elizabeth Mary Wright (died 1958), Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore:
      Among common errors still persisting in the minds of educated people, one error which dies very hard is the theory that a dialect is an arbitrary distortion of the mother tongue, a wilful mispronunciation of the sounds, and disregard of the syntax of a standard language.
  2. (linguistics, broad sense) A variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular area, community, or social group, differing from other varieties of the same language in relatively minor ways as regards grammar, phonology, and lexicon.
    Hyponyms: sociolect, ethnolect, genderlect, regiolect, topolect, geolect, vernacular
    • 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational Grammar: A First Course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 139:
      And in addition, many dialects of English make no morphological distinction between Adjectives and Adverbs, and thus use Adjectives in contexts where the standard language requires -ly Adverbs
  3. (derogatory) Language that is perceived as substandard or wrong.
    • 1975, H. Carl, Linguistic Perspectives on Black English, page 219:
      Well, those children don't speak dialect, not in this school. Maybe in the public schools, but not here.
    • 1994, H. Nigel Thomas, Spirits in the Dark, Heinemann, page 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."
    • 1967, Roger W. Shuy, Discovering American Dialects, National Council of Teachers of English, page 1:
      Many even deny it and say something like this: "No, we don't speak a dialect around here.
  4. (colloquial, offensive) A language existing only in an oral or non-standardized form, especially a language spoken in a developing country or an isolated region.
    Synonym: vernacular
  5. (computing, programming) A variant of a non-standardized programming language.
    Home computers in the 1980s had many incompatible dialects of BASIC.
  6. (ornithology) A variant form of the vocalizations of a bird species restricted to a certain area or population.
    • 1896, Alfred Newton, A Dictionary of Birds, page 893:
      A curious question, which has as yet attracted but little attention, is whether the notes of the same species of Bird are in all countries alike. From my own observation I am inclined to think that they are not, and that there exist "dialects," so to speak, of the song.

Usage notes

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  • In some linguistic traditions, the term "dialect" is restricted to nonstandard lects. In scholarly English usage, it refers to both standardized and vernacular forms of language.[1]
  • The difference between a language and a dialect is not always clear, and often has more to do with political boundaries than with linguistic differences. It is generally considered that people who speak different dialects of the same language can understand each other, while people who speak different languages cannot, however, in some cases, people who speak different dialects of the same language are mutually unintelligible. Compare species in the biological sense.

Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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other lects (cp. -lect)

Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ McGregor, William (2009) Linguistics: An Introduction, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 160

Further reading

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  • "dialect" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 105.
  • Crystal, David (2008) “dialect”, in A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6 edition, Blackwell Publishing, →ISBN
  • Fodde Melis, Luisanna; (2002) Race, Ethnicity and Dialects: Language Policy and Ethnic Minorities in the United States, FrancoAngeli, →ISBN

Anagrams

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Dutch

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Etymology

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From Middle French dialecte, from Latin dialectos, dialectus, 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

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  • IPA(key): /ˌdijaːˈlɛkt/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: di‧a‧lect
  • Rhymes: -ɛkt

Noun

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dialect n (plural dialecten, diminutive dialectje n)

  1. (linguistics) dialect (language variety)
  2. non-standard dialect; vernacular
    Synonyms: streektaal, mondaard

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Afrikaans: dialek
  • → Indonesian: dialek
  • → Papiamentu: dialèkt

Anagrams

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French dialecte.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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dialect n (plural dialecte)

  1. (linguistics) 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
  2. (colloquial) dialect

Declension

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Declension of dialect
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) dialect dialectul (niște) dialecte dialectele
genitive/dative (unui) dialect dialectului (unor) dialecte dialectelor
vocative dialectule dialectelor

Derived terms

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See also

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Further reading

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