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."
A brief overview of dialects and their importance in communication.
Linguistics: Study of language and its structure.
Phonetics: Study of speech sounds and pronunciation.
Phonology: Study of the sound patterns of a language.
Morphology: Study of the structure of words and how they are formed.
Syntax: Study of sentence structure.
Lexicon: Study of the vocabulary of a language.
Regional Dialects: Dialects that are used in a certain region or geographic area.
Sociolects: Dialects that are associated with a particular social group or class.
Ethnolects: Dialects that are associated with a particular ethnic group or culture.
Accent: The way in which someone pronounces words or phrases, usually based on their region or background.
Idiolect: The personal speech patterns of an individual.
Standard Dialect: The accepted, widely-used dialect of a language.
Non-standard Dialect: Non-conforming dialects that are not widely accepted.
Language Change: The ways in which dialects change over time.
Language Variation: The study of how language varies in different regions or social groups.
Geographic Dialects: This type of dialect refers to variations in pronunciations, vocabulary, and grammar that are typical of different regions.
Social Dialects: This type of dialect refers to variations in language use that are typical of different social classes or groups.
Ethnic Dialects: This type of dialect refers to variations in language use that are typical of different ethnic groups.
Gender Dialects: This type of dialect refers to differences in language use that are typical of males and females.
Occupational Dialects: This type of dialect refers to differences in language use that are typical of people in different professions or occupations.
Historical Dialects: This type of dialect refers to differences in language use that have resulted from historical developments.
Literary Dialects: This type of dialect refers to variations in language use that are typical of different literary traditions or genres.
Regionalisms: This type of dialect refers to unique lexicon, grammar, and pronunciation in one specific region.
Standard Dialects: This type of dialect refers to a language variety that is accepted as the official or normative variety in a particular country, region, or social group.
Multicultural Dialects: This type of dialect refers to the variety of languages and dialects that exist within a multicultural society.
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."