Part I. The Specific Features of dialects

Part I. The Specific Features of dialects. What is the dialect ? Dialect is a variety of a language. This very word comes from the Ancient Greek dialectos 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 structure - the phonology, morphology, or syntax.

The label dialect, or dialectal, is attached to substandard speech, language usage that deviates from the accepted norm. 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 dialects . 9, p.389 It is often considered difficult to decide 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. 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. There is the term vernacular among the synonyms for dialect 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. In contrast to accent, the term dialect is used to refer not only to the sounds of language but also to its grammar and vocabulary. 2. Geographic dialects. The most widespread type of dialectal differentiation is geographic. As a rule, the speech of one locality differs from that of any other place.

Differences between neighbouring local dialects are usually small, but, in travelling farther in the same direction, differences accumulate. Every dialectal feature has its own boundary line, called an isogloss or sometimes heterogloss. Isoglosses of various linguistic phenomena rarely coincide completely, and by crossing and interweaving they constitute intricate patterns on dialect maps. Frequently, however, several isoglosses are grouped approximately together into a bundle of isoglosses.

This grouping is caused either by geographic obstacles that arrest the diffusion of a number of innovations along the same line or by historical circumstances, such as political borders of long standing, or by migrations that have brought into contact two populations whose dialects were developed in noncontiguous areas . 9, p.396 Geographic dialects include local ones or regional ones. Regional dialects do have some internal variation, but the differences within a regional dialect are supposedly smaller than differences between two regional dialects of the same rank. In a number of areas linguistic landscapes where the dialectal differentiation is essentially even, it is hardly justified to speak of regional dialects.

This uniformity has led many linguists to deny the meaningfulness of such a notion altogether very frequently, however, bundles of isoglosses - or even a single isogloss of major importance - permit the division, of a territory into regional dialects.

The public is often aware of such divisions, usually associating them with names of geographic regions or provinces, or with some feature of pronunciation. Especially clear-cut cases of division are those in which geographic isolation has played the principal role . 9, p.397 3.