Online Encyclopedia

DIALECT (from Gr. Sia stcror, convers...

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 156 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DIALECT (from Gr. Sia stcror, conversation, manner of speaking, &aXeyec6at, to converse)  , a particular or characteristic manner of speech, and hence any variety of a language . In its widest sense
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languages which are branches of a
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common or parent language may be said to be " dialects " of that language; thus Attic, Ionic, Aeolic and Doric are dialects of Greek, though there may never have at any time been a
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separate language of which they were variations; so the various
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Romance languages,
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Italian, French,
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Spanish, &c., were dialects of Latin . Again, where there have existed side by side, as in England, various branches of a language, such as the languages of the Angles, the
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Jutes or the
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Saxons, and the descendant of one particular language, from many causes, has obtained the predominance, the traces of the other languages remain in the " dialects " of the districts where once the
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original language prevailed . Thus it may be incorrect, from the
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historical point of view, to say that " dialect " varieties of a language represent degradations of the standard language . A "
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literary accepted language, such as
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modern
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English, represents the original language spoken in the Midlands,, with accretions of Norman, French, and later literary and scientific additions from classical and other
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sources, while the
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present-day " dialects " preserve, in inflections, pronunciation and particular words, traces of the original variety of the language not incorporated in the standard language of the country . See the various articles on languages (English, French, &c.) .

End of Article: DIALECT (from Gr. Sia stcror, conversation, manner of speaking, &aXeyec6at, to converse)
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