Quote: "Dialect (from Latin dialectus, dialectos, from the Ancient Greek word διάλεκτος, diálektos 'discourse', from διά, diá 'through' and λέγω, légō 'I speak') refers to two distinctly different types of linguistic relationships."
These are regional varieties of a language that differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, such as different dialects of English spoken in England, Scotland, and Australia.
Introduction to Dialects: A brief overview of dialects and their importance in communication.
Language Variation: Different types of language variation and the factors that contribute to them.
Phonology: The study of sounds in a language and how they are pronounced.
Morphology: The study of the construction of words and their forms.
Syntax: The study of how words are combined to form sentences.
Semantics: The study of meaning in language, including how words and sentences are interpreted.
Sociolinguistics: The study of the relationship between language and society, including issues of power, status, and identity.
Dialect Geography: The study of dialects in different regions and their distinguishing features.
Dialectology: The study of dialects and their classification and characteristics.
Language Change: The study of how language evolves and changes over time, including the factors that contribute to change.
Language Contact: The study of how languages influence each other, including borrowing, code-switching, and pidgins and creoles.
Quote: "The more common usage of the term refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers."
Quote: "The dialects or varieties of a particular language are closely related and, despite their differences, are most often largely mutually intelligible, especially if geographically close to one another in a dialect continuum."
Quote: "A dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class or ethnicity."
Quote: "A dialect that is associated with a particular social class can be termed a sociolect."
Quote: "A dialect that is associated with a particular ethnic group can be termed an ethnolect."
Quote: "A geographical/regional dialect may be termed a regiolect (alternative terms include 'regionalect', 'geolect', and 'topolect')."
Quote: "Any variety of a given language can be classified as a 'dialect', including any standardized varieties."
Quote: "The other usage, which is specific to colloquial settings in a few countries... carries a pejorative undertone and underlines the politically and socially subordinated status of a non-national language to the country's single official language."
Quote: "In this case, these 'dialects' are not actual dialects in the same sense as in the first usage since they do not derive from one dominant language and are therefore not one of its varieties since they evolved in a separate and parallel way."
Quote: "The particular speech patterns used by an individual are referred to as that person's idiolect."
Quote: "Features that distinguish dialects from each other can be found in lexicon (vocabulary) and grammar, as well as in pronunciation (phonology, including prosody)."
Quote: "In instances where the salient distinctions are only or mostly to be observed in pronunciation, the more specific term accent may be used instead of dialect."
Quote: "Differences that are largely concentrated in lexicon may be classified as creoles."
Quote: "When lexical differences are mostly concentrated in the specialized vocabulary of a profession or other organization, they are jargons."
Quote: "Differences in vocabulary that are deliberately cultivated to exclude outsiders or to serve as shibboleths are known as cryptolects or cant, and include slangs and argots."
Quote: "The particular speech patterns used by an individual are referred to as that person's idiolect."
Quote: "Languages are classified as dialects based on linguistic distance."
Quote: "The dialects of a language with a writing system will operate at different degrees of distance from the standardized written form."
Quote: "Some dialects of a language are not mutually intelligible in spoken form, leading to debate as to whether they are regiolects or separate languages."