DIALECT • DICTIONARY ONE.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

... passionate, Macklin had been the most admired Shylock of his century. His specialty was the performance of character parts, often dialect roles, either broadly comic or cruel and ironic. The central figure of this, his best comedy, is such a part. It combines those features that the author could portray so effectively, the broad dialect, ...

— The Man Of The World (1792) • Charles Macklin

... seems to me The Heart of Midlothian has the widest appeal, although many would cast their votes for Old Mortality, The Antiquary or Rob Roy because of the rich humor of those romances. Scott's dialect, although true to nature, is not difficult, as he did not consider it necessary to give all the colloquial terms, like ...

— Modern English Books of Power • George Hamlin Fitch

... after our canon of to-day as if it were newly written. The modernness of all good books seems to give me an existence as wide as man. What is well done I feel as if I did; what is ill done I reck not of. Shakspeare's passages of passion (for example, in Lear and Hamlet) are in the very dialect of the present year. I am faithful again to the whole over the members in my use of books. I find the most pleasure in reading a book in a manner least flattering to the author. I read Proclus, and sometimes Plato, as I might read a dictionary, ...

— Essays, Second Series • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... whispered Dick to himself, then unconsciously uttering his thoughts in the dialect of his childhood—"that's me shor'; I don't reckon I kin be much less'n I am right now." And as one after another of the Christians arose and testified to the joy they found in doing Christ's work, ...

— That Printer of Udell's • Harold Bell Wright

... asked. He had a harsh untunable voice, his father's, but harsher, and he spoke the drawling dialect of ...

— The Path of the King • John Buchan

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