dialect

---

Etymology

From Middle French dialecte, from Latin dialectos, dialectus, from Ancient Greek διάλεκτος, from διαλέγομαι ("I participate in a dialogue"), from διά ("inter, through") + λέγω ("I speak").

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈdaɪ.əˌlɛkt/

Noun

dialect (plural dialects)

1. (linguistics, strict sense) A lect (often a regional or minority language) as part of a group or family of languages, especially if they are viewed as a single language, or if contrasted with a standardized idiom that is considered the 'true' form of the language (for example, Bavarian as contrasted with Standard German).

   Synonyms: patois

2. (linguistics, broad sense) A variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular area, community or social group, differing from other varieties of the same language in relatively minor ways as regards grammar, phonology, and lexicon.

   Hyponyms: sociolect, ethnolect, genderlect, regiolect, topolect, geolect, vernacular

3. (pejorative) Language that is perceived as substandard or wrong.
4. (colloquial, offensive) A language existing only in an oral or non-standardized form, especially a language spoken in a developing country or an isolated region.

   Synonyms: vernacular

5. (computing, programming) A variant of a non-standardized programming language.

   Home computers in the 1980s had many incompatible dialects of BASIC.

6. (ornithology) A variant form of the vocalizations of a bird species restricted to a certain area or population.

Related terms

• dialectally
• dialectical
• dialectician
• dialectics

• chronolect
• cryptolect
• familect
• idiolect

• ecolect
• ethnolect
• geolect
• regiolect
• sociolect
• topolect

Translations

• French: dialecte, patois
• German: Dialekt, Mundart
• Italian: dialetto
• Portuguese: dialeto (Brazil), dialecto (Portugal)
• Russian: диале́кт
• Spanish: dialecto

---

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003