dialect

Variation of a spoken language shared by those in a particular area or a particular social or ethnic group. The term is used to indicate a geographical area (‘northern dialects’ or ‘Brooklyn dialect’) or social or ethnic group (‘African-American dialect’).

Geographically, dialects are the result of settlement history. As populations spread over the land, some communities will have been separated by mountain ranges and rivers. In communities between which communication is difficult, differences in dialect can develop. The study of linguistic geography shows that the distribution of dialects is strongly associated with the topography of the landscape; dialect maps can in fact be drawn to identify areas that share certain linguistic features.

Social factors also strongly influence dialect; the way one speaks depends on family, background, occupation, level of education, and so on.

The term is sometimes used subjectively, in a judgemental and perhaps dismissive way. In that case, the standard language of a community is not seen as a dialect itself, but as the proper form of that language, dialects being considered in some way corrupt. This is a matter of social attitude, not of linguistic study.

Certain processes create a social and linguistic distance between the standard form of a language, as with Standard English and its dialects, in particular its prevailing use as a medium of education and in printing and broadcasting.