DIALECT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Dialect

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/dˈaɪəlˌɛkt/ Listen

noun

Dialect n.

Means or mode of expressing thoughts; language; tongue; form of speech. "This book is writ in such a dialect As may the minds of listless men affect. Bunyan. The universal dialect of the world."

The form of speech of a limited region or people, as distinguished from ether forms nearly related to it; a variety or subdivision of a language; speech characterized by local peculiarities or specific circumstances; as, the Ionic and Attic were dialects of Greece; the Yorkshire dialect; the dialect of the learned. "In the midst of this Babel of dialects there suddenly appeared a standard English language." "(Charles V.) could address his subjects from every quarter in their native dialect."

Synonyms: Language; idiom; tongue; speech; phraseology. See Language, and Idiom.

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Etymology of 'Dialect'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dialect" Quotes from Famous Books

... you've no heart. [She suddenly breaks out vehemently in her natural tongue—the dialect of a woman of the people—with all her affectations of maternal authority and conventional manners gone, and an overwhelming inspiration of true conviction and scorn in her] Oh, I wont bear it: I won't put up with the injustice of it. What ...

— Mrs. Warren's Profession • George Bernard Shaw

... to have a hand in the moulding of the national mind and the national manners. In his preface to "The American Spelling-Book," he says: "To diffuse an uniformity and purity of language in America, to destroy the provincial prejudices that originate in the trifling differences of dialect and produce reciprocal ridicule, to promote the interest of literature and the harmony of the United States, is the most earnest wish of the author, and it is his highest ambition to deserve the approbation and encouragement of his countrymen." ...

— Noah Webster - American Men of Letters • Horace E. Scudder

... that Richard always called him the 'ALLEGORY,' with a long white beard—a rare Appendage in those days—and a Face the colour of which seemed to have been baked in, like the Faces one used to see on Earthenware Jugs. In our Country- dialect Earthenware is called 'Clome'; so the Boys of the Village used to shout out after him—'Go back to the Potter, Old Clomeface, and get baked over again.' For the 'Allegory,' though shrewd enough in most things, had the reputation of being 'saift-baked,' ...

— Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam • Omar Khayyam

... up to the Perfection of Pastoral, will find nothing more difficult (unless the Dialect) than the inventing a sufficient Number of Pastoral Characters; such as are both faultless and beautiful. That difficulty ...

— A Full Enquiry into the Nature of the Pastoral (1717) • Thomas Purney

... because he has eaten all our dinners, I shall be quite willing to have him, for he is a dzear ole loveykins, wasn't ums?" (This, O my immaculate and dignified sire, which I transcribe with faithful undeviation, appears to be the dialect of a remote province, spoken only by maidens—both young and of autumnal solitude—under occasional mental stress; as of a native of Shan-si relapsing without consciousness into his uncouth tongue after ...

— The Mirror of Kong Ho • Ernest Bramah

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