Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists.
- noun A variety of language that with other varieties constitutes a single language of which no single variety is standard.
- noun The language peculiar to the members of a group, especially in an occupation; jargon.
- noun The manner or style of expressing oneself in language or the arts.
- noun A language considered as part of a larger family of languages or a linguistic branch. Not in scientific use.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Language; speech; mode of speech; manner of speaking.
- noun One of a number of related modes of speech, regarded as descended from a common original; a language viewed in its relation to other languages of the same kindred; the idiom of a district or class, differing from that of other districts or classes.
- noun The idiom of a locality or class, as distinguished from the generally accepted literary language, or speech of educated people.
- noun 4 Dialectic; logic.
- To make dialectal.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Means or mode of expressing thoughts; language; tongue; form of speech.
- noun The form of speech of a limited region or people, as distinguished from ether forms nearly related to it; a variety or subdivision of a language; speech characterized by local peculiarities or specific circumstances
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun 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. - noun A dialect of a language perceived as substandard and wrong.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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The second part of my reason for not writing these poems in dialect is the weightier.
God's Trombones Seven Negro Sermons in Verse Charles Buckles 1960
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OF what shall be said herein of dialect, let it be understood the term dialect referred to is of that general breadth of meaning given it to-day, namely, any speech or vernacular outside of the prescribed form of good English in its present state.
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Assyrian tongue differed only in dialect from the Hebrew, but in the
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Note that the a dialect is a distinctive usage of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.
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Whether you call it a different language or a dialect is academic, all that is at issue here is whether a story told from a British point of view should be read/can be understood by Americans if presented as originally written.
I say pyjama… 2008
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First, although the dialect is the exact instrument for voicing certain traditional phases of Negro life, it is, and perhaps by that very exactness, a quite limited instrument.
God's Trombones Seven Negro Sermons in Verse Charles Buckles 1960
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A dialect is a variant within a language, and there's no hard and fast rule on when a dialect becomes a separate language (is Espanglish a dialect of English, of Spanish, or a separate language, por exemplo), but the point here is that a Tzotzil speaker is not using a "dialect" of Spanish, but a different language, from a different language family.
Dialect and Language discussion - pulled from another thread . . . 2009
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A dialect is a variant within a language, and there's no hard and fast rule on when a dialect becomes a separate language (is Espanglish a dialect of English, of Spanish, or a separate language, por exemplo), but the point here is that a Tzotzil speaker is not using a "dialect" of Spanish, but a different language, from a different language family.
Dialect and Language discussion - pulled from another thread . . . 2009
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A dialect is a variant within a language, and there's no hard and fast rule on when a dialect becomes a separate language (is Espanglish a dialect of English, of Spanish, or a separate language, por exemplo), but the point here is that a Tzotzil speaker is not using a "dialect" of Spanish, but a different language, from a different language family.
Dialect and Language discussion - pulled from another thread . . . 2009
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A dialect is a variant within a language, and there's no hard and fast rule on when a dialect becomes a separate language (is Espanglish a dialect of English, of Spanish, or a separate language, por exemplo), but the point here is that a Tzotzil speaker is not using a "dialect" of Spanish, but a different language, from a different language family.
Dialect and Language discussion - pulled from another thread . . . 2009
MaryW commented on the word dialect
Jennifer Sclafani, The Idolect of Donald Trump, Scientific American Mind blog, March 16, 2016October 10, 2016