DIALECT

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways. One usage—the more common among linguists—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 dialect that is associated with a particular ethnic group can be termed as ethnolect, and a regional dialect may be termed a regiolect or topolect. According to this definition, any variety of a language constitutes "a dialect", including ...

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dialect

Noun

  1. 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.
  2. A dialect of a language perceived as substandard and wrong.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: dialect
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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