DIALECT

a variety of a language that is used by one group of persons and has features of vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation distinguishing it from other varieties of the same language that are used by other groups. The two main types of dialects are the geographic dialect, spoken by people of the same area or locality, and the social dialect, used by people of the same social class, educational level, or occupational group. The development of dialect variations clearly shows that language is continually evolving. Sometimes, when varieties of a language change to the point that they are mutually incomprehensible, the dialects become languages in their own right. This was the case with Latin, various dialects of which evolved into French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and their various dialects. In some cases, the label language or dialect is attached because of political or nationalistic considerations, not linguistic ones such as mutual comprehensibility. In China, for example, although there is a common written language, some spoken dialects are so distinct that, technically, they should be called languages. Yet, assigning one language to a country that has diverse populations is politically expedient in that it has a unifying effect. Thus, the distinction between a dialect and a language is often blurred. Generally, dialects develop as a result of barriers that exist between various groups of people who speak the same language. These barriers can be geographic, economic, political, or social. Regional dialectology was of interest to the historical linguists of the 19th century and the structural linguists of the first half of the 20th century. Recent research, however, has focused on linguistic variation that is due to social-class differences. The term dialect sometimes has a negative connotation in everyday use. More often than not, in the minds of nonlinguists, it connotes a deviation from the standard language, which is commonly thought to be superior. This standard language is, from the linguist's point of view, just another dialect, but it has more prestige than the others because it is spoken by the highly educated, a social elite, or simply a majority. a variety of a language. The word comes from the Ancient Greek dialektos discourse, language, dialect, which is derived from dialegesthai to discourse, talk. A dialect may be distinguished from other dialects of the same language by features of any part of the linguistic structurethe phonology, morphology, or syntax. In the sound system of American English, for example, certain dialects distinguish the vowel in caught from that in cot, while others do not, and in some dialects greasy is pronounced with an s sound and in others with a z sound. In morphology (word formation), various dialects in the Atlantic states have clim, clum, clome, or cloome instead of climbed, and, in syntax, there are sick to his stomach, sick at his stomach, sick in, sick on, and sick with. On the level of vocabulary, examples of dialectal differences include American English subway, contrasting with British English underground; and corn, which means maize in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, wheat in England, and oats in Scotland. Nevertheless, while dialects of the same language differ, they still possess a common core of features. Frequently, the label dialect, or dialectal, is attached to substandard speech, language usage that deviates from the accepted norm; e.g., the speech of many of the heroes of Mark Twain's novels. On the other hand, the standard language can be regarded as one of the dialects of a given language. In a special historical sense, the term dialect applies to a language considered as one of a group deriving from a common ancestor; e.g., English, Swedish, and German are Germanic dialects. There is often considerable difficulty in deciding whether two linguistic varieties are dialects of the same language or two separate but closely related languages; this is especially true of dialects of primitive societies, in which the difference is essentially one of degree. Many decisions regarding dialects versus languages must be arbitrary. Normally, dialects of the same language are considered to be mutually intelligible, while different languages are not. Intelligibility between dialects is, however, almost never absolutely complete; on the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can still communicate to a certain extent when each uses his own mother tongue. Thus, the criterion of intelligibility is quite relative. In more developed societies, the distinction between dialects and related languages is easier to make because of the existence of standard languages and, in some cases, national consciousness. Among the synonyms for dialect, the word idiom refers to any kind of dialect, or even language, whereas patois, a term from French, denotes rural or provincial dialects, often with a deprecatory connotation. An idiolect is the dialect of one individual person at one time. This term implies an awareness that no two persons speak in exactly the same wayi.e., without slight differences in vocabularyand that each person's dialect is constantly undergoing changee.g., by the introduction of newly acquired words. Most recent investigations emphasize the versatility of each person's speech habits according to levels or styles of language usage. Another synonym for dialect is the term vernacular; it refers to the common, everyday speech of the ordinary people of a region. The word accent has numerous meanings; in addition to denoting the pronunciation of a person or a group of people (a foreign accent, a British accent, a Southern accent), it also refers to features of pitch or stress. In contrast to accent, the term dialect is used to refer not only to the sounds of language but also to grammar and vocabulary.