What is a dialect?

A dialect is a regional variant of a language distinguished by minimal lexical, grammatical, or phonological (pronunciation) differences from variants of the same language.

The amount of variation needed between two languages to classify them as dialects of a single language versus different languages is a matter of ongoing debate among linguists, dialectologists, and policy makers.

• Concept module: dialect
• In overview module: Glossary (Literacy): D
• In modular book: Glossary of literacy terms
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 28 March 1996

© 1999 SIL International