One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language’s speakers.[1] Under this definition, the dialects or varieties of a particular language are closely related and, despite their differences, are most often largely mutually intelligible, especially if close to one another on the dialect continuum. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class or ethnicity.
A dialect that is associated with a particular social class can be termed a sociolect, a dialect that is associated with a particular ethnic group can be termed an ethnolect, and a geographical/regional dialect may be termed a regiolect(alternative terms include ‘regionalect’, ‘geolect’, and ‘topolect’). According to this definition, any variety of a given language can be classified as a “dialect”,
including any standardized varieties. In this case, the distinction between the “standard language” (i.e. the “standard” dialect of a particular language) and the “nonstandard” (vernacular) dialects of the same language is often arbitrary and based on social, political, cultural, or historical considerations or prevalence and prominence.In a similar way, the definitions of the terms “language” and “dialect”
may overlap and are often subject to debate, with the differentiation between the two classifications often grounded in arbitrary or sociopolitical motives. The term “dialect” is however sometimes restricted to mean “non-standard variety”, particularly in non-specialist settings and non-English linguistic traditions.
