Page 186 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics

Notes (or local or geographical or territorial dialects) are spoken by the people of a particular geographical
area within a speech community, e.g. Cockney in London, but due to the increase in education and
mobility they are receding.
“Dialect is a specific form of a given language, spoken in a certain locality or geographic area, showing
sufficient differences from the standard of literary form of that language, as to pronunciation,
grammatical construction and idiomatic use of words, to be considered a distinct entity, yet not
sufficiently distinct from other dialects of the language to be regarded as a different language.”
—A Dictionary of Linguistics (1954) by
A. Pie and Frank Gaynor.

Sociolects (social dialects or class dialects), on the other hand, are spoken by the
members of a particular group or stratum of a speech community.

A variety of language used at a particular stage in its historical development, e.g. Prakrit and Pali in
ancient India, may be called temporal dialects.
Dialects are dialects not because of linguistic reasons but because of political or cultural reasons. It is
customary to describe them as varieties of a language according to users. For example Brijbhasha,
Avadhi, Bhojpuri, Khari Boli, etc. are some of the dialects of Hindi.
To the linguist, however, as stated by Sapir, ‘there is no real difference between a dialect and a
language.’ Grierson also observes, ‘In the course of the survey, it has sometimes been difficult to
decide whether a given form of speech is to be looked upon as an independent language or as a
dialect of some other definite form of speech. In practice, it has been found that it is sometimes
impossible to decide the question in a manner which will gain universal acceptance. The two words
‘language’ and ‘dialect’ are in this respect like ‘mountain’ and ‘hill’. One has no hesitation in saying
that Everest is mountain and Hoborn Hill a hill, but between these two the dividing line cannot be
accurately drawn.’
13.2.3 Isogloss
An isogloss is ‘a line indicating the degree of linguistic change’. ‘On linguistic maps, a line separating
the areas (called isoglass area) in which the language differs with respect to a given feature or features,
i.e. a line making the boundaries within which a given linguistic feature or phenomenon can be
observed’ (A Dictionary of Linguistics).
So an isogloss is a representation of statistical probabilities, a graphic way of portraying a transition
in speech characteristics from one area to another, a bundle of isoglosses may be interpreted as marking
a zone of relatively great transition in speech. We may, therefore, think of it as indicating dialect
boundary. It is a term modelled on geographical terms like isotherm (a line joining areas of equal
temperature) and isobar (a line joining areas of equal atmospheric pressure). It is in contrast to another
linguistic term isograph, i.e. ‘any line on a linguistic map, indicating a uniformity in the use of sounds,
vocabulary, syntax, inflection, etc.’
Though an isogloss is a convenient way of description, but may be misleading if the apparent sharpness
of distinction between the areas is not carefully discounted. “The drawing of isoglosses is one of
many places where it is easy to be over-precise. The reading of them is even more dangerous, since
the reader has not seen the intricate mass of data upon which they are based.” (Gleason)

13.2.4 Registers
Whereas dialects are the varieties of language according to users, registers are the varieties of language
according to use. Registers are ‘stylistic-functional varieties of a dialect or language’. These may be
narrowly defined by reference to subject matter (field of discourse, e.g. jargon of fishing, gambling,
sports, etc.) to medium (mode of discourse e.g. printed material, written letter, message on tape, etc.),

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