We explain what dialects are, how they are classified and why they are important. We also explain their characteristics and examples.
What are dialects?
A dialect or dialect variant is one of the possible manifestations of a specific language or idiom. It occurs within the framework of a specific context (usually geographical), and does not present radical differences with respect to the language that make understanding completely impossible.
In other words, dialects are each of the specific ways of speaking a language that are distinguished in their speech, although they belong to the same system of meanings and the same grammatical logic, that is, to the same language.
It is not easy to distinguish between the dialects of a language., nor determine who speaks a language and who a dialect. These distinctions are generally sociopolitical, rather than linguistic, since “neutral” or objective forms do not really exist in verbal language.
See also: Literary language
Differences with a language
In principle, A language is the sum of all dialects, stylesvariants and manifestations in which its speakers put it into practice.
In that sense, a language is an abstraction.
This means that Dialects form a sector within the order of the languagethat is, they are an internal category, but not negligible or of lesser value.
You could say that yes Language is a way ideal to speakeach dialect is a mode real to do it.
Types of dialect
Two types of dialect are recognized:
- Geographical. Called “diatopic variants” or “geolects”, they are the variations of the same language that take place in the different populations that speak it, as a consequence of the passage of time and geographical separation.
- Social. Called “diastratic variants” or “sociolects”, they are the variations of the same language that occur between different strata, social classes, professions or social and cultural circuits.
Why are dialects important?
The dialects They are the language in its most lively state that exists.
They are the specific way in which we practitioners of a language speak, taking into account our historical, cultural and anthropological contextthat is, making language a reflection of our existence.
Far from being a secondary category, dialects are the “truth” of language.
Properties of dialects
The dialects are:
- Local. They belong to a certain sector of the speakers of a language, although the rest can understand it or recognize it at least as part of the same language.
- Contextual. They have different forms of elaboration depending on the context of use, such as the register (formal, informal, colloquial), the mastery of the language or “standard” variety (high, medium, low) and the individual or personal style.
- Historical. Each dialect has its own history of development, which is also part of the history of the language to which they belong.
How to recognize dialects?
When recognizing whether two forms of speech are dialects of the same previous language, the following reasons are taken into account:
- Mutual intelligibility. Two dialects of the same language may appear very different, but they will share common ground that will allow them to recognize and understand each other to a certain degree.
- Shared territory. Two dialects are usually located in the same territory and often the same political unit, either in the present or in the recent past.
- Common writing. Dialects of the same language share writing with each other and generally have a common literary tradition.
Misuses of the term
The term dialect has been used as a way to discredit the language of some communities. It is used to suggest that a language does not become a language because it is minor, insignificant or despicable.
This attitude has been taken mainly with pre-Columbian American languagesThis is a conceptual error, since these languages were fully used languages that came from their own linguistic families.
Furthermore, a racial prejudice that diminishes or infantilizes the civilizations oppressed and exterminated during the conquest.
Spanish dialects
The Spanish language has different dialects. They can be explained by looking at a larger geographical divisionwhich contrasts the way it is spoken in Europe and the way it is spoken in America:
- Peninsular dialect. The one spoken in Europe, especially in Spain. It is characterized by the use of youand the pronunciation of the c and the z. It can be divided into two distinct dialects:
- Northern dialects. Those spoken in the northern half of the Iberian Peninsula, such as the Castilian dialect (Castilian Castilian), Aragonese, Riojan, Leonese or Churro or Valencian.
- Southern dialects. Those spoken in the southern half of the country and in the Canary Islands, including Andalusian, Extremaduran, Canary Islands, La Mancha, Madrid and Murcia. Unlike the previous ones, they tend toward siseo, yeísimo and the final aspiration of the yesjust like in America.
- American dialect. The one spoken in Latin America is characterized by being yeísta, lispy and completely omitting the pronoun you. In some cases the voseo is used. This Spanish has a huge variety of its own dialects, which can be summarized in regional dialects:
- Andean dialect. Known in Peru and Ecuador as “Serrano”, it is typical of the communities of the Andean mountain range, such as southern Colombia and southwestern Venezuela, eastern Ecuador, much of Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and northern Argentina and Chile. It is distinguished by its pronunciation of the s endings and their r’s (rr) voiced fricative.
- Caribbean dialect. Spoken in the Caribbean basin, from the coasts of Colombia, Venezuela and Panama, to the Spanish-speaking islands (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic) and the US state of Florida. It is characterized by its notable influence of Canarian and Andalusian, its influence of North American English in its lexicon and its strong African heritage.
- Central American dialect. A set of variants spoken in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and the Mexican state of Chiapas. They are characterized by the predominant voseo and a tendency towards the conservative norm (the “cultured norm”) that distinguishes it from the rest of the continent.
- Mexican dialect. A set of dialects and sociolects of the Mexican territory, whose cultured norm is that of Mexico City, but presents an enormous heritage of indigenous lexicons. The Yucatecan dialect stands out, whose variation is such that it seems like a different language, and the New Mexican dialect, spoken in the state of Chihuahua and in the US states of New Mexico and Colorado, a unique mixture of Nahuatl, Anglicisms and medieval Spanish.
- River Plate dialect. Spoken in the vicinity of the Río de la Plata: Argentina (Central-East and South of the country) and Uruguay. It has a characteristic use of voseo (you rather you) and a strong presence of Italianisms.
- Chilean dialect. The official Chilean variant, different from all the others. It is characterized by being very fast, by its intermediate ups and downs in pitch in the sentence, and minority voseant reminiscences.
Language features
Language or language is a coding system that allows mutual understanding, as long as it is handled by both the sender and the receiver in a communicative act.
For this to be possible, the language is:
- Collective. It cannot be spoken and accepted by a single individual, but must be used by a community. Dead languages, for example, are those that no one speaks, even though there may be a record of how they operated.
- Ideal. Language has to do with an order of linguistic categories and forms that are mental, not concrete. When they are articulated in real sounds, we are in the presence of the speaks.
- RigidLanguage operates as a linguistic mould, made up of norms, exceptions, prohibitions and so on. An individual alone cannot change the norm, nor can he impose on others how he would like the language to begin to operate.
- FlexibleParadoxically, language is also flexible, as it allows for the creativity of its users, the incorporation of borrowings from other languages or innovations, and it allows itself to change over time, as evidenced by the way different languages evolve.
Speech characteristics
Unlike language, speech is the concrete manifestation of the mental and social code contained within it. It is characterized by being:
- Individual. Everyone has their own peculiar way of speaking the same language, depending on their tastes, nationality, physical constitution, etc.
- Concrete. Speech is the specific way of emitting sounds framed in the language code, so that it consists of sound waves perceived by our ears.
- Changing. Speech is pure mutability: it can vary from day to day, from one context to another, from one speaker to another, and from one mood to another. However, always within certain basic rules of the language.
Examples of dialects
Some examples of dialects are:
- From Italian. Tuscan, Piedmontese, Sardinian, Abruzzese, Milanese, Pugliese, etc.
- From French. Haitian Creole, Cajun, Camfranglais, Antillean Creole, Quebec French, etc.
- From Chinese-Mandarin. Yángzhöu dialect, Xï’än dialect, Chéngdü dialect, etc.