dialectology
Sign in to saveDialectology () is the scientific study of dialects and other forms of language variation, especially variation associated with geographic region. Dialectologists investigate differences in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, and how such differences pattern across communities and change over time.
AI overview
Dialectology is the scientific study of how languages vary across different geographic regions and communities, examining differences in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. This field matters because it helps us understand how and why people in different places speak differently, and how these speech patterns change over time.
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Article
24 sectionsContents
- History
- Early developments
- English dialects
- The sociolinguistic turn
- African American Vernacular English
- French dialects
- German dialects
- Italian dialects and Corsican
- Scots dialects and Gaelic
- Concepts and terminology
- Isoglosses
- Mutual intelligibility
- Diglossia
- Dialect continuum
- Pluricentrism
- Methods
- Questionnaires
- Recording technology
- Contemporary approaches
- See also
- References
- Sources
- Further reading
- External links
Dialectology () is the scientific study of dialects and other forms of language variation, especially variation associated with geographic region. Dialectologists investigate differences in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, and how such differences pattern across communities and change over time.
The field developed in the 19th century alongside historical linguistics and became closely associated with large-scale dialect surveys and the production of dialect maps and linguistic atlases. Such work typically relies on systematic data collection (for example, questionnaires, interviews, and recordings) and represents the geographic distribution of linguistic features using concepts such as isoglosses and dialect boundaries.