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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

... is not unlike the Hebrew in its character, resembling it about as closely as the Yorkshire dialect resembles good English. The characters are so large and clearly cut that it is a pleasure to read them after the laborious scrutiny of the minute Babylonish clay tablets. The inscription on this slab is identical with a portion of that of the great "Standard Monolith," ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 497, July 11, 1885 • Various

... our survey. It marks a strange trait of our own age that this revival of the national idea falls in the very time when other barriers are broken. Ancient folk-song grew like the flower on the battle-field of races. But here is an anxious striving for a special dialect in music. Each nation must have its proper school; composers are strictly labelled, each one obedient to his national manner. This state of art can be but of the day. Indeed, the fairest promise of a greater future lies in the morrow's blending of these various elements ...

— Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies • Philip H. Goepp

... was large and prim, resembling a Swiss hotel in its furniture, the language and composition of the menu, the dialect of the waiters; but it was about fifteen degrees colder than the highest hotel in Switzerland. The dining-room was shaded with rose-shaded lamps and it susurrated with the polite whisperings of elegant couples and trios, and the entremet was cabinet pudding: a ...

— Mr. Prohack • E. Arnold Bennett

... thronged with warriors. The Aleuts lost their heads and dashed for hiding in the woods, only to find certain death. Baranof and the Russians with him fired off their muskets till all powder was used. Then they shouted in the Aleut dialect for the hunters to embark. The sea was the lesser danger. By morning the brigades had joined the sloops on the offing. Thirteen more canoes had been ...

— Vikings of the Pacific - The Adventures of the Explorers who Came from the West, Eastward • Agnes C. Laut

... to understand all the cat dialects. For example, I don't know a word of the Angora dialect, and can only understand a sentence here and there of the tortoiseshell dialect, but so far as good, pure standard cat language goes, it's as plain as print to me to-day, though I haven't paid any attention to it ...

— The Idler Magazine, Volume III, April 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

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