dialect
/ˈdaɪ.əˌlɛkt/
Frequency: 3.54 in modern English
Meaning
noun
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).
noun
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.
noun
A language existing only in an oral or non-standardized form, especially a language spoken in a developing country or an isolated region.
Colloquial; Offensive
noun
A variant of a non-standardized programming language.
noun
A variant form of the vocalizations of a bird species restricted to a certain area or population.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "Comparative wordlists of two dialects of Yoruba with Igala."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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"
- "Well, those children don't speak dialect, not in this school. Maybe in the public schools, but not here."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: dialecte, dialectos, διάλεκτος
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdaɪ.əˌlɛkt/
- British English: /ˈdaɪ.əˌlɛkt/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Linguistics.